2013 Press Releases

Friars’ accounts reveal social history

14 May 2013
The book was published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission

Cork Franciscan friars ate heartily during the famine according to a new book which details their financial accounts from the 1798 rebellion to World War 1.

The book, entitled ‘The account books of the Franciscan House, Broad Lane, Cork, 1764–1921’, has been edited by Professor Liam Kennedy and Dr Clare Murphy of Queen’s University, Belfast and is published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

The accounts reproduced in the book were kept by the Franciscan friars in their friary which at the time was located on Broad Lane, off North Main Street in Cork.

The records detailed in over 44,000 entries cover the daily living expenses of the friars and consequently reveal much about not only life in a friary during events such as the 1798 rebellion, the Famine and World War I, but also the day-to-day involvement with the local community through the food they bought, the people they employed, the wages they paid and their connections with the national and international structures of their order and the wider church.

In launching the book, Dr Andy Bielenberg, UCC’s School of History, commended the editors on their work to bring this source into print and said: “While the potential of these archival treasures has yet to be fully realized, this volume makes available for study for the first time a substantial slice of the records of this famous Franciscan friary”.

Responding on behalf of the editors, Professor Liam Kennedy, who studied as an undergraduate at UCC, said that “The accounts offer a revealing window on economic, social and cultural change in Cork, while also throwing light on the progress of the Cork Franciscans, and the Catholic church more generally, across 150 years of Irish history”.

In his concluding remarks at the reception to mark the launch of the publication, Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dr James McGuire, said that “the excellent research done by Professor Kennedy and Dr Murphy will be enhanced by the availability of the raw data for this publication as an online searchable database on the IMC website http://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/servlet/Controller?action=publication_item&pid=120. This accessibility will open up the data to detailed analysis of the socio-economic history it contains.”

University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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