Building Mitchelstown, 1779-1830

David A. Fleming

Mitchelstown in Co. Cork was one of over 750 Irish towns built or remodelled between 1690 and 1840. Its regular street plan, linear building plots and uniform architecture epitomized the enlightened and improving mentality of the period. The town was largely built over a period of fifty years between 1779 and 1830, at a time of significant national and local economic expansion, creating opportunities for investors and builders to develop and speculate. This study examines not only the ambitions and influence of the proprietorial family, the Kings, earls of Kingston, who initiated the reconstruction of the town, but also those who engaged in building and developing it. These professionals, shopkeepers, clergymen and others had as much influence on its architecture and realization as had the proprietors.

David A. Fleming is a Professor of history at the school of History and Geography at the University of Limerick. His research concentrates on the social and political development of eighteenth-century Ireland, including provincial politics, poverty, religious conversion, associational behaviour and prostitution. He is the author of Edmund Sexten Pery: The politics of virtue and intrigue in eighteenth-century Ireland (FCP, 2023).