Michael Lynch

Ireland's Pre-famine Textile Industry: the Impact of Industrialization Upon Linen and Cotton Production in Ireland, Influenced by World Market Forces Michael Lynch

Prior to the late eighteenth century, linen manufacture in Ireland was a cottage industry. The Industrial Revolution shifted linen production from individual family homes into factories. Technological advancement brought about a seemingly simple transformation which impacted Ireland's economy, ethnicity, culture, society, religion, and ultimately Ireland's relationship with England, and the world. This study provides academic and interested readers with a basic narrative of this transformation, its concise factual characteristics, and its consequences which are impacting Ireland to the present.