Nineteenth Century Ireland: The Search for Stability

The search for stability proved elusive. Nationalist Ireland mobilized a mass democratic movement under O'Connell to secure Catholic Emancipation before seeing its world transformed by the social cataclysm of the Great Famine. At the same time, the Protestant north—east of Ulster was feeling the first benefits of the Industrial Revolution. Although post—Famine Ireland modernized rapidly, only the north—east had a modern economy. The mixture of Protestantism and manufacturing industry integr...