DOI Artikel:
Lucas, A. T.: Irish ploughing practices, 1
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48999#0054
IRISH PLOUGHING PRACTICES
A. T. Lucas
PART ONE
The sources for the study of Irish ploughs and
ploughing practices are of very limited scope.
Except for a number of shares and coulters,
no identifiable part of a plough has yet been
discovered in an archaeological context and
there is a total absence of representations in
any medium until the seventeenth century,
from which time onwards schematic outlines
of ploughs and plough parts are to be found
on a comparatively small number of tomb-
stones. Illustrations of other kinds do not be-
come available until the eighteenth century and
are never plentiful. To the writer’s knowledge,
no data of any significance can be gleaned
from literary sources prior to the same cen-
tury and the bulk of such comment on the
Irish plough as does exist is of a negative na-
ture, more critical of the shortcomings of the
implement than productive of positive infor-
mation about it. The introduction of English
and Scottish ploughs under the aegis of ‘im-
proving’ landlords and societies for the pro-
motion of better agricultural methods at the
close of the eighteenth and the beginning of
the nineteenth century led to the rapid dis-
appearance of such native plough types as
were in existence. Moreover, the spectacular
growth of population in the same period re-
sulted in the fragmentation of farms, on the
small subdivisions of which the spade almost
wholly replaced the plough as a means of
cultivation. This development was particularly
common in those districts along the western
seaboard where, by reason of the general
poverty of the soil, the difficulties of the ter-
rain and remoteness from the influence of
large urban centres, local types of plough
might have been expected to linger in use to a
later date than in more prosperous areas. In
view of these circumstances and of the fact
that the social and economic conditions of the
vast majority of farmers precluded the erection
of spacious outbuildings in which some dis-
used examples might have lain undisturbed, it
is understandable that no specimen of a native
plough from the eighteenth or nineteenth cen-
tury appears to be extant.
The sources for research on ploughing prac-
tices, while still exiguous, are somewhat better.
Few explicit descriptions of any aspect of
Irish ploughing are forthcoming and the writer
is aware of none from a purely native source.
For the Early Christian period, the conven-
tional terminus of which is the twelfth century,
the data must be sifted from phrases, figures
of speech and casual references in the contem-
porary literature. The invasion of the Anglo-
Normans in the twelfth century and their sub-
sequent subjugation of large areas of the coun-
try resulted in a new body of legal and ad-
ministrative documentation which affords more
factual information. The custom of ploughing
by the tail is frequently referred to in English
official documents of the seventeenth century
relating to Ireland, as well as in the works of
writers and travellers of this and the following
century. However, no really detailed informa-
tion about Irish ploughing practices is obtain-
A. T. Lucas
PART ONE
The sources for the study of Irish ploughs and
ploughing practices are of very limited scope.
Except for a number of shares and coulters,
no identifiable part of a plough has yet been
discovered in an archaeological context and
there is a total absence of representations in
any medium until the seventeenth century,
from which time onwards schematic outlines
of ploughs and plough parts are to be found
on a comparatively small number of tomb-
stones. Illustrations of other kinds do not be-
come available until the eighteenth century and
are never plentiful. To the writer’s knowledge,
no data of any significance can be gleaned
from literary sources prior to the same cen-
tury and the bulk of such comment on the
Irish plough as does exist is of a negative na-
ture, more critical of the shortcomings of the
implement than productive of positive infor-
mation about it. The introduction of English
and Scottish ploughs under the aegis of ‘im-
proving’ landlords and societies for the pro-
motion of better agricultural methods at the
close of the eighteenth and the beginning of
the nineteenth century led to the rapid dis-
appearance of such native plough types as
were in existence. Moreover, the spectacular
growth of population in the same period re-
sulted in the fragmentation of farms, on the
small subdivisions of which the spade almost
wholly replaced the plough as a means of
cultivation. This development was particularly
common in those districts along the western
seaboard where, by reason of the general
poverty of the soil, the difficulties of the ter-
rain and remoteness from the influence of
large urban centres, local types of plough
might have been expected to linger in use to a
later date than in more prosperous areas. In
view of these circumstances and of the fact
that the social and economic conditions of the
vast majority of farmers precluded the erection
of spacious outbuildings in which some dis-
used examples might have lain undisturbed, it
is understandable that no specimen of a native
plough from the eighteenth or nineteenth cen-
tury appears to be extant.
The sources for research on ploughing prac-
tices, while still exiguous, are somewhat better.
Few explicit descriptions of any aspect of
Irish ploughing are forthcoming and the writer
is aware of none from a purely native source.
For the Early Christian period, the conven-
tional terminus of which is the twelfth century,
the data must be sifted from phrases, figures
of speech and casual references in the contem-
porary literature. The invasion of the Anglo-
Normans in the twelfth century and their sub-
sequent subjugation of large areas of the coun-
try resulted in a new body of legal and ad-
ministrative documentation which affords more
factual information. The custom of ploughing
by the tail is frequently referred to in English
official documents of the seventeenth century
relating to Ireland, as well as in the works of
writers and travellers of this and the following
century. However, no really detailed informa-
tion about Irish ploughing practices is obtain-