County Longford Explored Irish History in the Hidden Heartland reviewed by Stephen Collins
Published in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 2026.
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Abstract

, Good local history can provide a better key to understanding the past and the complexity of relations on our small island than broader national surveys, which often fail to capture the reality of our ancestors’ lives., This book by Fergus O’Farrell is an example of local history at its best. [End Page 512] The author, as a trained historian, combines a scholarly approach to his subject with a deep understanding of the people and the geography of his native county., In the prologue, he says that the Irish local historian is required to examine ‘the tensions, conflicts, disruptions, and accommodations that arose between “newcomers” and “natives” particularly in relation to land ownership and use but also in respect of language, culture, trade and religion.’, He suggests that Irish local historians must operate within two broad cultures, the Gaelic and Anglicised way of seeing the world and their different perceptions of local territories. Only by doing that will they be able to understand people within the landscape in which they have lived and even helped to shape., The author argues that local history matters, not just as another enjoyable pastime or an academic discipline, but as a form of knowledge that promotes healthy cultural development as well as informing current social and political challenges. He says that local historians, if they are true to their task, will establish a close and critical rapport with all the sources of a community’s past, not shrinking from the pain and trauma of past conflicts but recounting the stories of past generations with empathy and sensitivity for all., He quotes the great philosopher Spinoza: ‘I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them but to understand them.’, The early chapters of the book trace the evolution of ‘O’Ferrall countrie’ from around AD 1100 up to the end of the Gaelic world and the emergence of a new ruling class in the aftermath of the Cromwellian plantation. For centuries after the Norman invasion, the O’Ferrall’s managed to hold on their territory through a mixture of resistance and guile., Within the territory there was a marked difference between the approach of the O’Ferrall Bán in the north of the county, who resisted the encroachments of the Dublin administration, and the Farrell Buí to the south of them, who survived by adaption and accommodation., The O’Ferrall Bán rallied to Hugh O’Neill, while their southern neighbours tried to stay out of the conflict and later used the courts in Dublin and London to protect their interests. In south Longford, English was widely spoken long before it spread to the north of the county., The leading Ferralls managed to hold on to most of their land in the Plantation of Longford in 1619, but it was a short-lived reprieve. The Cromwellian settlement, followed by the Williamite one, transformed land [End Page 513] ownership in the county and entrenched a new, mainly Protestant land owning class at the apex of society. Some of these families, like the Edgeworths, made important contributions to society both locally and nationally., This ascendency was challenged in the nineteenth century by the emergence of democratic politics in the wake of Catholic Emancipation. The author, who completed a pioneering work on the development of the O’Connellite political organisation in Longford for his doctorate, expands on the theme in the book and traces the evolution of politics in the county up to the time of the crucial South Longford by election of 1917., Elections in Longford in the 1830s were bitter, sectarian affairs, which stirred up tensions between the Catholic and Protestant communities. The weight of numbers ultimately saw to it that the Catholic/nationalist side prevailed in politics. The land acts in the late nineteenth century had an equally dramatic impact on the ownership of land., O’Ferrall’s focus is wider than politics. He has chapters on the Edgeworth family and their circle, the significance of Oliver Goldsmith’s work, and a chapter on hunting and horse racing in the county’s story., He concludes with a meditation on the significance of home and asks...