CHH009 Ireland under the Union 1: The Union to the Famine

The Act of Union is one of the great turning points in Irish history.  But what did it actually mean?  This is the first of two short courses that will look at how government under the union worked, at the changes it brought to the lives of ordinary men and women, and at the different groups who challenged or supported Ireland’s new status as part of the British state.  It will cover the period from the introduction of the Act of Union, devised in the aftermath of the bloody insurrection of 1798, up to the crisis of the Great Famine, seen by some as the ultimate proof that the union was a sham.