Irish Geography

Mapping the Miasma; the geographies of a forgotten Irish epidemic

Fiona Gallagher — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0800

In the spring of 1832, the great cholera pandemic finally reached Ireland. This was the most virulent pestilence to reach European shores since the Black Death. Cholera was to kill at least 30,000 in Britain, 100,000 in France and Hungary, and a similar number in Russia. Eclipsed by the tragedy of the Great Famine and now almost forgotten, the cholera’s final death toll in Ireland has been variously estimated to have been between 25,000 and 50,000 people. Primarily an urban disease, it struck hard, but also erratically, attacking some towns, while leaving others close by unaffected. The impact and legacy of the cholera on Irish towns and society remains under-studied, despite the significant amount of contemporary data available. In this article, daily and weekly numerical data collected during 1832 by the Central Board of Health and preserved in the National Archives, is analysed using a modern GIS system. For the first time, the details of the incidence of the epidemic in individual towns is mapped. By mapping this data and setting it within the context of the complex political and social events of the period, the significant impact which the disease had on the urban sphere in pre-famine Ireland is revealed.

Geographies of Pawnbroking in pre-Famine Ireland

Ray O'Connor — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0800

While pawnbroking had a long history in Ireland it was not until the second decade of the nineteenth century that pawnshop numbers increased dramatically and the geography of pawnbroking shifted radically. This paper provides a detailed account of this changing geography. It outlines where the money that funded the expansion of pawnbroking originated. Unlike other businesses, pawnbrokers paid significant bonds to enter the trade and were legally required to provide three substantial independent sureties. To quickly recoup these initial costs and become profitable, pawnshops opened only in settlements where a significant demand for short-term credit existed. The ongoing decline of Ireland’s textile industries, the post-Napoleonic price collapses for agricultural commodities after 1815, the collapse of private banks in 1820 and a significant potato famine in the summer of 1822 combined as catalysts that caused a rapid expansion of pawnbroking between 1817 and 1824. As living standards deteriorated, pawnbrokers migrated into new settlements exploiting new poverties and the growing need for credit. This paper tracks the diffusion of pawnshops between 1787 and 1824 to provide new understandings of the geographies of deteriorating living standards, impoverishment and increased levels of economic precarity in the immediate post-Napoleonic period.

Dealing with epidemics in late nineteenth century Dublin - A case study of typhoid fever

Joseph Brady, Peter Connell — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0800

Epidemics were a regular fact of life in Dublin during the second half of the nineteenth century. There were many infectious diseases to cope with as well as diseases of the respiratory and nervous systems. Death from such diseases was not an unusual occurrence, particularly among the poorer classes, but occasionally annual rates would surge to epidemic levels. Medical knowledge was undergoing a significant advance with an understanding of the role of bacteria displacing the centuries-old theory of miasma but it would be the following century before the role of viruses would be understood. It took some time for miasma to be entirely discounted with bacteria merely replacing the animal poisons previously believed to be the cause of illness. This was just as well as dealing with miasma involved an emphasis on public sanitation and hygiene: effective whether miasma, bacterium or virus. Dublin experienced a typhoid fever epidemic in 1891 and 1893 and the analysis undertaken at the time was unusual for its depth and the quality of geographical information provided. This paper examines that outbreak and explores the importance of geographical factors in explaining its distribution.

Change of Risk Perception and Risk Communication in County Cork, Ireland after Former Hurricane Ophelia (2017)

Ines Koensgen, Kieran Hickey, Udo Nehren — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0800

Communication towards the public about the risk of natural hazards (NHs) is important to enable community resilience and encourage autonomy in handling NHs impacts. The need for communication becomes even more crucial as NHs become more prominent due to climate change. This also includes hurricanes. Due to warmer sea surface temperatures and decreased vertical wind shear, hurricanes can undergo extratropical transition and reach northern latitudes more easily. Thus, they pose a higher threat of making landfall in Europe, especially Ireland. On the 16^th of October 2017, former Hurricane Ophelia made landfall on the south coast of Ireland and caused severe disruption. This study assesses the risk perception of the people in Co. Cork towards NHs, especially hurricanes, and their satisfaction with the risk communication during Ophelia by analysing the risk communication chain, content and media and obtaining improvement suggestions in communication. It could be shown that the people of Co. Cork are not overly concerned about being affected by NHs. Still, they are aware of the risks of hurricanes. Especially after being affected by Ophelia, hurricanes are perceived as being of higher risk in the future. Overall participants are satisfied with the communication about the threats and how to behave during Ophelia. Still, improvements were suggested by the public and by experts.