From Broken Glass to Stained Paper: A Family and a Business in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

By Paul Star
Published in Irish Economic and Social History, January 2025.
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Abstract

From small beginnings running a glazing and house-painting business in Mountmellick, later members of the Star family became master-painters and wallpaper manufacturers in Dublin between 1820 and 1880. In Mountmellick, they were Anglicans with a Quaker clientele; in Dublin, a new generation became Catholics, serving a Catholic clientele and specialising in church decoration. Their story highlights both possibilities and problems in operating a business in nineteenth-century Ireland. It also gives a new angle on aspects of Ireland's ‘devotional revolution’, the nature of Irish nationalism and limits to Dublin's industrial development. Building on both historical and genealogical research, a look at one family business suggests how other families and their histories, in similar economic and social settings, could be described and analysed.