Community studies 2003-4: Lecture 5 Country towns
Introduction
In the last lecture we started to look at some
of the data that has been gathered on Irish
rural communities through the ethnographic
approach. We mentioned in particular the
early research by Arensberg & Kimball
[A&K] and some subsequent ethnographies
carried out in the 1960s and 1970s.
The focus for this lecture is a study by NUI
Galway sociologists Chris Curtin and Colm
Ryan of the town of Ennis, Co. Clare [in
Curtin & Thomas (ed) Ireland from below,
1989, pp128-143]. It is interesting as, unlike
most previous ethnographic studies in Ireland, it examines a country town, rather than a
farming-based community. It thus provides
a bridge between studies of rural and city
communities. I will also make some comparisons with the work of anthropologist Marilyn Silverman in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny.
Country towns & class
Curtin and Ryan [C&R] point out that until
their study there had been no ethnographic
study of an Irish urban community since
Humphrey’s book New Dubliners in 1966.
Thus, they say:
while we have a great deal of ethnographic information on various types of
farmers and, to a lesser extent, farm labourers, we lack even basic ethnographic
information on urban social groups .
As A&K point out (p. 309) in Ireland towns
have long been perceived as ‘foreign’: it may
be for this reason that they have not attracted the attention of researchers: especially
from abroad. In many ways - related to scale
and complexity - it is also harder to study
towns than small rural communities.
C&R’s study of Ennis seeks to draw attention to the significance of class and class divisions in town life and to highlight in particular the continuing importance of these divi-
sions for working class social life. C&R focus on issues of power and inequality.
C&R compare and contrast the period of
the 1930s (when A&K studied Ennis as part
of their Clare study) and the 1980s. In the
1930s, there appeared to be a rigid class hierarchy in Ennis, with the operation of exclusive social clubs. By the 1980s the class
structure appeared to be much more ‘open’,
but C&R suggest that close ethnographic
study reveals that class and class culture continue to be of crucial importance in understanding the nature of the Ennis community.
Similar points are made by Silverman. Her analysis
is an example of the political economy approach:
she locates the town within the broader global economic system: Thomastown is shaped by its peripheral position in the world economy and its underdeveloped nature.
Ennis in the 1930s
In the 1930s, according to A&K, Ennis was
a market town serving a mixed agricultural
hinterland. There was no manufacturing industry worth mentioning. People worked for
themselves or for small family enterprises.
Unskilled and craft workers were found in
the construction industry, women worked in
‘personal service’ in hotels, hospitals and for
families. [Silverman’s data for Thomastown is very
similar: though she does stress how the town was integrated into the international economy through flour
milling and distribution of manufactured goods].
Class differences in Ennis were clearly
marked:
on the streets one could judge with some
accuracy a person’s occupation by his
style of dress, and from his occupation
determine the type of house he lived in
and in which quarter of the town it
stood.
Class identity and boundaries were complex,
and shaped by factors such as wealth, occupation, housing, values and customs. But ac-
Community studies 2003-4: Lecture 5 Country towns
cording to C&R, while ‘subtle gradations existed within the town’s hierarchy . . . each
man knew his station and the station of his
neighbour’.
In Thomastown, according to Silverman (p. 207):
the pattern of streets and buildings, and the classbased structuration of space, were established well before the mid-19th century. After that time, the relation between class and space was continually reproduced
Importance of social clubs
For C&R ‘styles of life’ were a crucial marker of class difference: these found institutional expression in members-only (and exclusively male) social clubs. The study of such
clubs, and other forms of social activity (eg
interaction in pubs and other public venues)
has been an important aspect of community
studies (eg in the UK and New Zealand).
The key social clubs in Ennis included:
 Country club (landed aristocracy)
 Abbey club (elite)
[these 2 had become defunct by the 1930s]
 Farmers’ club (less elitist)
 Golf club (elite)
 Odd Fellows (middle class; white collar workers, smaller merchants, shop assistants)
 O’Connell (lower middle/working class)
 Foresters’ (skilled working class)
 Labour Rooms (unskilled working class)
 British Legion (working class)
 Temperance Hall (working class)
The social clubs helped to maintain the class
structure in Ennis in a variety of ways:
 as a tool to facilitate class segregation and a
means to perpetuate and reinforce class &
gender divisions
 the process of election to more elite clubs
maintained exclusivity
 the working class clubs (esp Labour Rooms)
provided the opportunity for working class
solidarity and mobilisation
 the elite clubs provided business opportunities and contacts
 religious organisations/events major opportunity for women to socialise, also shopping/visiting
For Silverman, the social clubs in Thomastown were
a reflection that class was more important in the
Irish country town setting than was religion or ethnicity (quoting a contemporary journalist):
there are two reading rooms in the town for
which papers of various shades of political opinion are taken and where Protestant and Catholic, Whig Repealer and Tory meet in goodliest
fellowship. Fanaticism has no rule here
Ennis in the 1980s
The key to change in Ennis (as in Thomastown) was the impact of industrial development, particularly that related to the Shannon Development programme.
Ennis has seen considerable growth, with a
population of over 16,000 by 1991 (compared with under 6000 in 1936)
By 1971 Ennis supported industrial employment of 650 in a number of factories
owned by TNCs. By the 1980s there were
1250 employed in manufacturing out of a
total labour force of 5000. Working class
employment was now typically in factories,
retail and services.
The population continued to be stratified
along class lines, and the proportions of different classes reflected the changing occupational makeup. There was:
 a high level of managerial/professional people (17%)
 fewer private proprietors (9%)
Community studies 2003-4: Lecture 5 Country towns
 an expanding lower middle class (34%) reflecting the importance of the service sector
 a large skilled manual class (20%)
 a large un/semi skilled class (16%)
C&R stress the continued numerical importance of working class in the town.
The 1960s and 1970s saw a massive programme of house building. Working class estates were developed on the outskirts of the
town, with facilities once the preserve of
middle/upper class. There was also the development of new middle class housing estates and ‘palatial’ residences on towns outskirts occupied by the wealthy.
[Silverman points out how from the mid-nineteenth
to the mid-20th century, the patterns of residence in
Thomastown were remarkably consistent:
The pattern of streets and buildings, and the
class-based structuration of space, were established well before the mid-nineteenth century. After that time the relation between class and space
was continually reproduced
It was not until the 1960s, with the development of
housing estates outside the town, that the pattern
changed at all significantly. Silverman also stresses
how important institutions – in the form of the
Church and the State – have been in the shaping of
the spatial identity of the small town (through the
building of churches, convents, hospitals and social
housing).]
Leisure and class
C&R suggest that:
industrialisation and consequent social
structural transformation made a significant impact on the social life of the town.
As the length of the working day was reduced and standards of living and levels
of income improved, a wide variety of
commercial and other entertainments
sprang up and became accessible to all
The socially exclusive clubs disappeared –
exceptions were the golf and bridge clubs,
still seen as socially exclusive by the working
class. Social life now focused on pubs: where
‘a distinct class pattern of usage emerges’.
C&R suggest that the pubs in Ennis could
be classified as follows:
16% - exclusively middle class clientele
50% - exclusively working class
12% - country pubs
22% - mixed clientele
C&R analyse the different styles of pubs.
They suggest that workers will usually drink
at the pub where there is a forum for their
particular culture and leisure interests (eg
sport, work). They argue that the local pub
‘takes on the character of a semi-exclusive
club where the ‘inner circle’ or regulars are
clearly distinguished from casual patrons’.
Analyses of some types of pubs in other societies (eg England, Australia) reflect similar
findings.
‘The lads’: occupational identity, leisure time & class se gregation
[see C&R pages 138-140] For ‘the lads’,
drinking was firmly tied into ‘sporting’
events (ie local pub based soccer competitions). [Eamonn Sweeney’s book on Sligo
Rovers There’s only one red army makes similar
points in relation to the links between class,
community, drinking and soccer in an Irish
urban community. Roddy Doyle’s book The
Van is also instructive.]
C&R also suggest that social life remains
firmly gender divided. Women are excluded
from most pub groupings, and their focus is
on the domestic arena. An important change
is that the size of working class houses now
permits a broader interpretation of the
space: it is no longer just a domestic arena,
but can be used for ‘male’ leisure activities,
eg watching sport on TV.
Community studies 2003-4: Lecture 5 Country towns
C&R conclude that their examination of patterns of social life in Ennis has indicated the
importance of class. From a rigid delineation
of class in the 1930s, reinforced by and expressed through the exclusive social clubs,
they suggest that changes in housing, work
and in particular leisure pursuits, have led to
a more subtle but almost equally strong set
of class divisions.
Thus ‘public’ places such as pubs become
class and gender specific according to informal codes which are just as effective in
shaping the character of social life as the
former exclusive clubs.
Future Ennis?
To my knowledge, C&R have not returned
to Ennis to update their findings. However
Ennis continues to experience rapid growth
and now has a national profile as the Information Age Town. It is already technologically
advanced, with higher than average rates of
use of the Internet and other communications technologies [see Information Age
Town website www.ennis.ie].
similar to others in terms of jobs in IT, for
example.
Ennis has also had a high profile as a destination for refugees and asylum-seekers from
countries as diverse as Nigeria, South Africa,
Angola, Iran, Iraq and Romania. These people are often unable to access the pubs and
clubs of Ennis, and thus would not form
part of the social life described by C&R.
Given the centrality of pub life in Ireland,
such exclusion may well have significant effects [it is interesting that there is now at
least one Nigerian-owned pub in Dublin].
Ennis has also been involved in the [ultimately less than successful] development of
an international folk music centre: an initiative aimed at taking an aspect of the indigenous culture of the community, and commoditising it for international consumption.
It is extremely active in the tourist industry,
and in cultural forms such as sport and music. It is an integral part of the Shannon/Limerick development area, a concentration of high tech industry.
Clearly Ennis has – like other parts of Ireland - been much influenced by the trends
of globalisation. Though little mentioned by
either A&K or C&R it is clear that the broad
outlines of the Ennis community in the past
were strongly shaped by global cultural
trends. The question is what impact will
these future developments have on class and
gender inequalities, and their expression and
maintenance – within the future town of
Ennis?
Many social groups within the town became
involved in the Information Town bid, from
Rotarians to Travellers’ groups.
Perry Share
October 2003
The group behind the bid saw the future of
the town in terms of teleworking, multimedia, transnational communication, provision
of healthcare, and as a global technological
testbed eg for smartcards. It was hoped that
at least 50% of the town’s 800 businesses
would be trading goods and services over
the Internet by the end of year 2000. It appears that the changes have been somewhat
less dramatic, and that the town is broadly