Manufacturing companies in Ireland in 1853

Frank Barry, Professor of International Business & Economic Development, Trinity College, examines the state of manufacturing companies in and around the year 1853. The Industrial Revolution was associated with the rise and spread of the factory system, the decline of cottage industries and the emergence of new types of firms, with certain industries affected more rapidly and more dramatically than others. The consequences for much of Ulster and the rest of Ireland proved very different. The present paper seeks to identify the largest manufacturing firms of recent and earlier vintages in the three southern provinces at the time of the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853.