Irish Peasant Society

First published in 1968, this work ranges far and wide over the neglected field of Irish social history. It comprises four essays: 'Illicit Distillation', 'Ether Drinking in Ulster', 'Illegitimacy before the Famine' and 'Catholicism and Marriage in the Century after the Famine'. As a historian Professor Connell had a highly individualistic style, avoided generalizations and scrupulously documented his assertions. Much of his wealth of documentation was drawn from the parliamentary papers, but he also used the invaluable material for social history collected by the Irish Folklore Commission, as well as the conclusions drawn by various commentators on the Irish social scene in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.