Topographical Dictionary of Ireland [Paperback]

The trend continues of reproducing works which are long out of print and making them available at a reasonable price to those whose access to old libraries is limited. A book, an original copy of which might be found in Abebooks at £400, can be purchased at perhaps £40. There is no fixed market price and one volume of the Topographical Dictionary from different publisher costs twice as much as the other. Another gripe is that those selling them sell only one volume and you have to get the second from a different publisher. I found this in two cases. The volumes don't match in size either. The buyer should be ware.

These volumes are an essential for everyone who is interested in the state of Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine. There was far more to Ireland than peasants living in mud-walled cabins and cultivating an acre of potatoes, though there were many of those.

That said, this is Volume One of Lewis's Topographical Dictionary. The entries are in alphabetical order and this volume covers from Abbey, a village in County Clare to Gurtlownen a village in county Sligo. Volume Two covers from Hacketstown, a village in county Wicklow to Youghal-arra, a parish in county Tipperary. All the counties, cities, dioceses, towns, parishes and villages are systematically covered, the length of the entry depending on the importance of the place. This volume contains 674 pages of small print. The second volume runs to 736 pages.

The author or compiler was a publisher who lived in London and derived his information from existing statistical surveys and clearly from a standard questionnaire sent out to gentleman and clergymen in every parish in Ireland. The information sought was on the nature of the land, the kind of crops that were grown, whether the state of agriculture was progressive of backwards, the quality of the housing,the number and kind of industries in each place, and what minerals were mined.

With regard to the towns, of first interest was the form of government in each town and the nature and number of the courts. Local government was far from standardized. Most towns had their own charter. Many of these charters were granted to provide a limited and easily managed borough for the purposes of parliamentary elections. These fronchises were swept away and municipal government reformed by two Acts of Parliament a few years before this dictionary was compiled, so they provide an invaluable historical record. Those towns without charters and their own courts usually had a manorial court, a relic of the Middle Ages.

These volumes are difficult to read at one go, but are essential for students of the period who can mine them for the material they contain. The standard type of questionnaire make comparisons of different districts easy.