Abstract
The 'Wretched Poor' and the Sea: Contest and exploitation of Achill Island's historic maritime landscape
Highlights
SummaryThe daily lives of Achill Island's inhabitants were heavily influenced by their relationships with the ocean, its resources and the seasons
On Achill, curraghs changed in form and construction from the late 19th through the early 20th century, indicating a change in use: while earlier vessels were rowed, with single gunwales on lightweight wooden lattices, construction moved to a stronger double-gunwale and continuous inner planking
Nangle reported that the loss of the 13 boats impacted at least 26 families (Meide and Sikes 2011), indicating that each boat was shared by two families; using an average size of seven individuals within a family on Achill (Purdy 1862, 45; Stone 1906, 340), around 180 individuals from these 26 families would have been directly affected by the loss resulting from that single incident. It is possible, if not likely, that maritime resources may have been further distributed among families within communities, since islanders appear to have organised communal access to the maritime landscape and the fish it provided through kinship ties and cooperative agreements, much as they organised communal access to terrestrial resources and agricultural labour
Summary
The daily lives of Achill Island's inhabitants were heavily influenced by their relationships with the ocean, its resources and the seasons. Ireland's largest island, situated along its predominantly rural western coast, Achill remains in many ways idyllic and pastoral, descriptors used in the modern and recent historic era to draw tourists and used in previous centuries to denigrate the culture and lifeways of the islands' inhabitants. Achill Island is situated off of the western coast of Ireland, in predominantly rural County Mayo. In 19th-century Achill, as in other places throughout Ireland, after centuries of British rule and the impact of the Penal Laws still lingering (McDonald 1998; Wall 2001), Irish-speaking native populations comprised a tenant class reliant on English-speaking landlords. British attitudes toward Achill's Irish-speaking native population were commonly disdainful, in one instance local tenants were described as having 'all the virtues and vices of semi-barbarians' (Otway 1839, 426)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
