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This volume of essays explores the multiple forms and functions of reading and writing in nineteenth-century Ireland. This century saw a dramatic transition in literacy levels and in the education and language practices of the Irish population, yet the processes and full significance of these transitions remains critically under explored. This book traces how understandings of literacy and language shaped national and transnational discourses of cultural identity, and the different reading communities produced by questions of language, religion, status, education and audience. Essays are gathered under four main areas of analysis: Literacy and Bilingualism; Periodicals and their readers; Translation, transmission and transnational literacies; Visual literacies. Through these sections, the authors offer a range of understandings of the ways in which Irish readers and writers interpreted and communicated their worlds.

This book provides a comprehensive depiction of Ireland’s regional press during the turbulent years leading up to the foundation of the Irish Free State following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. It investigates the origins of the regional papers that reported this critical period of Irish history and profiles the personalities behind many of these publications. Furthermore, this book presents case studies of seventeen newspapers – nationalist, unionist, and independent – across the four provinces of Ireland. These case studies not only detail the history of the respective newspapers but also closely scrutinises the editorial commentary of each publication between 1914 and 1921. Consequently, a thorough analysis of how each of these regional titles responded to the many dramatic developments during these years is provided. This includes seminal events such as the outbreak of World War I, the Easter Rising of 1916, the rise of the Sinn Féin party, the War of Independence, and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. During this time many of Ireland’s regional newspaper titles faced censorship, suppression, and in some cases, violent attack on their premises that threatened their livelihood. In some instances, newspaper owners, editors, and their staff were arrested and imprisoned. Their experiences during these years are meticulously detailed in this book.