Abstract
The officers of the Society for 2018 were: James Kelly (president); Ella Kavanagh (treasurer); Juliana Adelman (secretary); Chris Colvin (web editor); Jennifer Maxwell (membership secretary); Catherine Cox and Graham Brownlow (editors); Matthew Stout (book reviews/newsletter editor); Rebecca Stuart, Jonathan Wright, Niall Ó Cíosáin, Olwen Purdue, and Laura Kelly (committee members); Catherine Cox (representative on Irish Committee for Historical Sciences); and Deirdre Foley (postgraduate representative with responsibility for social media).
Matthew Stout was replaced during the year by Jonathan Wright as book reviews editor. Deirdre Foley was co-opted as postgraduate representative with responsibility for social media. Laura Kelly and Olwen Purdue both stepped down from the committee.
Journal. The 2018 volume (45) is with the printer. There has been excellent flow of copy to the journal. Articles continue to appear online as soon as they have successfully navigated peer review. Please see the journal editors’ report.
Pamphlets. As a result of the fact that Dundalgan Press has gone into liquidation and the Society, through the president, is currently endeavouring to establish its ownership of the IESH pamphlets, printed by Dundalgan Press, that remain in its possession.
Annual conference: The conference was hosted by Queen’s University Centre for Economic History, Queen’s Management School, Queen’s University, Belfast. The Connell Lecture was delivered by John Turner of Queen’s University on ‘Wildcat Bankers or Political Failure? The Irish Financial Pantomime, 1797–1826’.
The following papers were presented: FRIDAY: ‘Savings Banks and the Industrial Revolution in Prussia’, Fabian Wahl and Sibylle Lehamann-Hasemeyer (University of Hohenheim); ‘Belfast…a port and market town’: Belfast Town Council and the Markets, 1845–50, Lesley Donaldson (Independent Researcher); ‘Implications of Time-Varying War Risk’, Jonathan Chapman (NYU Adu Dhabi); ‘Inequality and Poor Law Policy in Late Victorian England’, Gertjan Verdickt (University of Antwerp); ‘Italian Banks in Egypt Between the two world wars’, Enrico Berbenni (European University Institute); ‘The Agency of Famine Victims: Skibbereen and the Relief Efforts of 1847’, Nobert Götz (Södetertörn University Stockholm); ‘The Great Depression in Germany: An estimated DSGE model of the interwar period’, Hendrik Steinbrecher (Technical University of Dortmond); ‘Explaining Patenting behaviour between England, Ireland and Scotland, 1617–1852’, Stephen D. Billington (Queen’s University Belfast); ‘The Leading Manufacturing Firms in Protectionist-Era Ireland, 1938–48’, Frank Barry (Trinity College Dublin); ‘Analysing the Efficiency of the Gold Fixing from the Beginning for the first time’, Fergal O’Connor (University College Cork) and Brian Lucey (Trinity College Dublin); ‘How T.K. Whitaker centralised and diversified Ireland’s currency reserves’, Frank Kennedy (Queen’s University Belfast / London School of Economics); ‘The persistence of ownership inequality: Investors on the German stock exchanges, 1869–1945’, Andreas Neumayer and Sibylle Lehmann-Hasemeyer (University of Hohenheim). SATURDAY: ‘A Comparison of Editorial Cartoons Inspired by Papel Encyclicals in the Irish Press’, Barry Sheppard (Queen’s University Belfast); ‘The marriage bar on women teachers in Northern Ireland, 1920–40’, Alexandra Tierney (Trinity College Dublin); ‘Two Roads Diverge: Physical Education and Partition in 1920s Ireland’, Conor Heffernan (University College Dublin); ‘“The Flax Pullin” – Traditions and Techniques around Ulster’, Sebastian Graham (Queen’s University Belfast); ‘The supply of Physical Education teachers in Northern Ireland, 1922–54’, Conor Curran (Trinity College Dublin); ‘The Lure of Air Transport: some Irish case studies’, John King (Independent Researcher); ‘Purging the ‘Slave Mind’: Cumannna n Gaedheal and the Philosophy of Irish-Ireland’, Seán Donnelly (Teeside University); ‘The Economics of Legislative Independence Reconsidered’, Patrick Walsh (Trinity College Dublin); Reflections on the social significance of St Andrew’s Day for Ulster-Scots Culture’, Struan Kennedy (Independent Researcher); ‘The Famine that Wasn’t? 1799–1801 in Ireland’, Liam Kennedy (Queen’s University Belfast) and Peter Solar (Saint-Louis-Bruxelles); ‘National Self-Sufficiency Agriculture and Government in Ireland, 1932–38’, Anna Devlin (Trinity College Dublin); ‘Ireland’s Peculiar Microfinance Revolution, c. 1836–45’, Eoin McLaughlin (St Andrews) and Rowena Pecchenino (Maynooth); ‘Charwomen and Dublin City’s Secondary Labour Force, C. 1880–1930’, Ciaran McCabe (University College Dublin); ‘The “Northern Athens”? Cultural and intellectual Life in Victorian Belfast’, Alice Johnson (Queen’s University Belfast); ‘The buying network of Mary, Viscountess Doneraile’, Maeve O’Riordan (University College Cork); ‘The Photographer and the City’, Lucy Wray (Queen’s University Belfast); ‘Public Baths: cleansing the Industrial City’, Rhianne Morgan (Queen’s University Belfast); ‘Cast-off clothing acquisition in Post-Famine Ulster’, Eliza McKee (Queen’s University Belfast).