JOURNAL OF THE IRISH LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY

REVIEWSresulting from the arrival of the rrGWU on the localscene. The story of the ensuing conflict is front-linestuff: provocation, confrontation, rallies, importedblacklegs, baton-charges, arrests, yes, even a fatality inthe person of Michael Leary, who died from a blow ofa peeler's baton. The lockout dragged on from Agusut1911 to February 1912, first under the leadership ofP.T. Daly, then under James Connolly, who secured thesettlement which gave victory to the workers."Sean DalyTom Lyng, Castlecomer Connections, ExploringHistory, Geography and Social Evolution in NorthKilkenny Environs, (Castlecomer History Society,Castlecomer, 1984), pp. 429, £17.50Th~ beautifully produced book is a tribute to thehard working local committee that succeeded in publishingthe outstanding work of local historian, TomLyng. Heavily illustrated with photographs of excellentquality, the reader is introduced to various 'Connections'ranging from topographical to diocesan ones.For the labour historian, however, there is much tointerest those seeking regional accounts of radical andrevolutionary movements in detailed treatments of theCroppies, land agitators and the North Kilkenny Battalion.Radical politics was best expressed through theactions of the Castlecomer miners.Lyng details the origins of mining in the area from1600. He illustrates the descriptions of the variousprocesses and techniques with contemporary prints ofIffie drawings of method and maps of both surface andunderground workings to build a fme mental image ofthe industry and its demanding conditions. The men,their skills, families and leisure activities then follow inan account that demonstrates a deep comprehension ofthe miner and an equally clear commitment to theircause. Whilst the account is sympathetic, it is balancedand accurate. He sketches the family history of theultimate mine owners, the Prior Wandesfordes and usesoral history techniques in the reproduction of the extensiveand impressive account by Eamonn Brennan inpainting a picture of a' typical Castlecomertownminer',Jack Doyle. Lyng concludes his account by detailingthe various trade union organisations that flourished inthe town and their leaders, men of rare quality such asNixie Boran and Jimrny Walsh. He suggests that at theend of1971 'Nixie and the Colliery culture died', but itremains and was evidenced by the village'S generouswelcome to Ann Scargill and arrangement of holidaysfor South Wales Miners' children in the British coalstrikeofl984-5. Lyng's book will also help to maintainthat identity and allow outsiders to evaluate the importanceof the much ne glected area oflocal history for thelabour historian. Over four hundred pages, all lavishlyillustrated, make the book great value and an endlesssource of interest as a document of essentially ordinarylifestyles in a rural small town in Ireland over twocenturies.61Francls DevlneR. Mitchinson & P. Roebuck (eds), Economy andSociety in Scotland and Ireland, 1500-1939, (JohnDonald, Edinburgh, 1988), pp. 319,£20'Labour History' too often restricts itself to organisedmen in industrial society - 'if you can't fmd a tradeunion, then it's not labour history'. A collection of thissort belies that restricted view. Here we have a broadsweep of studies on the economy and society in Scotlandand Ireland over four and a half centuries whichcarmot fail to touch on some aspect of the lives of theworking people of both cO'untries.The essays are the proceedings of the third conferenceof economic and social historians of Ireland andScotland held at Magee College, Derry in September1985. The volume is set out in three sections. 'Land,Lordship and the Market Economy' deals with therelation between tradition and change in the rural worldof the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; 'SocialAdjustment and Economic Transition' looks at issuesarising in the period of economic divergence, such asreal wages, poverty, diet and class relations; 'PrivateEnterprise and Public Policy' concerns itself with industrialand infrastructural developments in the nineteenthand twentieth centuries. There is in these twentyfiveessays something for most tastes and the introductionby Mitchinson and Roebuck is a comprehensiveoverview of the essays and of the conference itself.In the first section the comparative essays were themore interesting. Roebuck's piece comparing the economicsituation and functions of substantial land-ownersin Ulster'and Lowland Scotland from the late seventeenthto the early nineteenth centuries concluded thatthe pressures on some Ulster land-owners preventedthem from successfully changing their region's ruraleconomy. Fragmentation of tenancies prevented consolidationof holdings and industrial developmentemerged in the countryside. In Low land Scotland landownerssuccessfully -from their point of view -consolidatedholdings into substantial farms and promotedagriCUltural improvement while industrial develomentcentred on towns and villages, soaking up the inevitablerural de-population. As far as the powerless rural workerswere concerned, the results were probably littledifferent - in crude terms they were alienated from theland to provide labour for the developing industrialrevoluton: in the case of Ulster the physical alienationwas only partial and the compensating industrial workwhich was available turned out to be less secure than