The Excel Centre in Tipperary town will host a book launch at 3pm on Saturday (October 19th) marking the publication of the third in a trilogy of Tipperary history by Dr Des Marnane. The book, which runs to 600 pages, is titled “From Landed Estates to Family Farms” and deals with how land ownership has evolved in Ireland especially in Tipperary. Professor Willie Nolan – author and former Professor of Geography at UCD will launch the Book.
Dr Marnane says the work is a continuation of his PhD studies that began over 30 years ago. The book will cover how many of the landlord families such as Maud, Barrymore, Damer and Darby acquired and subsequently lost the estates and the many large houses that were involved. Dr Marnane says the book is intended as a companion to his previous works on the Civil War in Tipperary and the history of the 3rd Brigade of the Old IRA providing a total of almost 1,700 pages of Tipperary history. The former teacher at the Abbey School says having a sense of history helps people to understand the current situation and that the current situation is not necessarily how things always were. One of the interesting aspects of the book is legislation such as the Land Purchase Act 1903 whereby the English Government advanced money to tenants to purchase their farms from their landlord. When Ireland secured it’s Independence the De Valera administration tried to end the repayments to the UK but continued to collect the payments from the new farming landowner. The issue of access to the archives of the Land Commission makes the complete history difficult to research according to Dr Marnane who says there may be “political” reasons why the State does not invest in making the records more readily accessible but also accepts that the Land Commission Archive is a huge repository of documents and records.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase on the day but only by means of cash payments.
