The land and people of County Meath, 1750-1850

"This book traces how great changes were played out on the rolling plains of Co. Meath. Long characterized as a rich county dominated by strong farmers involved in the fattening of beef cattle, the picture of Meath that emerges here is a much more complex one. Making use of a wide range of sources, including estate records and the surviving manuscript census of 1821 for the Navan baronies, Peter Council explores the relative position of the different classes in rural society over the period. He suggests that by the 1840s a large proportion of the population had been marginalized by changes in the economy, by the decline in the domestic linen industry and by the growing demand for land. The Great Famine is set in this context and portrayed as the denouement of Meath's landless labourers and cottiers."--BOOK JACKET.