Consumption Practice and the Authenticity of "Irishness": Everyday Material Life on the Islands of Inishark and Inishbofin, Co. Galway, Ireland

Summary

How were mass-produced consumer goods incorporated into everyday expressions of local and national identity in 19th and early 20th century Ireland? While archaeologists have explored the myriad ways that mass-produced goods circulated throughout the British Empire through networks of trade and exchange, less attention has been given to the way specifically British manufactured goods were incorporated into meaningful practices of material consumption within Irish communities. This project investigates how these industrially produced consumer products became woven into the social, religious, and cultural fabric of daily life in the Irish island communities of Inishark and Inishbofin from the late 18th century to the present day. Recent archaeological investigations by the Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast project on Inishark and Inishbofin, combined with the oral history of island residents, will further an understanding of the significant ways that mass-produced consumer goods were meaningfully incorporated into island life through the collection of delph (ceramics) on household dressers, and consumption of tobacco pipes in everyday life and during traditional Irish wakes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22472