Document Type
Theses, Ph.D
Disciplines
Interdisciplinary, History, Gastronomy, Food Studies, *Irish Food Studies, Food History
Abstract
This thesis argues that a specific alcoholic beverage—claret, the red wine of Bordeaux—had unparalleled social meaning in the lives of Georgian Ireland’s elite. Ireland’s historical wine trade with Bordeaux has attracted much scholarly attention, as has the topic of alcohol consumption in general by the island’s inhabitants in the long eighteenth century. This research draws on a wide range of period sources to establish the social meanings and gastronomic pre-eminence of claret in elite society and it discusses numerous factors that led to claret achieving iconic status amongst Georgian Ireland’s wine bibbers. There is no evidence of viticulture in Ireland’s history. Yet, historically, wine has played a significant role in Irish society in ritual, reinforcing social hierarchies and identity, hospitality, commensality, commerce, material culture, and gastronomy. The research explores the history of wine in Ireland from earliest times up to the end of the Georgian era. The social world of Ireland’s elite in the eighteenth century is discussed as are the concomitant complexities surrounding both Ireland’s contested political identity in the period and the tangled issues and terminology relative to the identity of the island’s elite. In the eighteenth-century, port became the totemic drink of Britain’s wine drinkers, and Madeira was the wine favoured by Anglo-America’s elite. A wide range of wines was available in Georgian Ireland, but myriad evidence points to the kingdom’s wine drinkers’ predilection for claret. In the popular imagination, at home and abroad, claret was so closely linked to wine consumption on the island that when Jonathan Swift referred to ‘Irish wine’ in his letters, his correspondents immediately recognised that Swift was referring to the red wine of Bordeaux. This research explores the manifold social meanings of claret in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century Ireland and it highlights the fact that claret was an integral element of refined sociability and elite habitus. To indicate their taste and status, the members of Georgian Ireland’s elite chose claret above all other wines to construct, signify, and perform social identities and hierarchies.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/cjdp-a292
Recommended Citation
McConnell, Tara, "The Social Meaning of Claret in the Lives of Georgian Ireland's Elite, 1714-1837" (2020). Theses, Doctoral. 5.
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/tfschcafdoc/5
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Publication Details
The Social Meaning of Claret in the Lives of Georgian Ireland's Elite, 1714-1837, submitted by Tara McConnell, B.A., M.Sc.to School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology Technological University Dublin Ollscoil Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath for the Award of PhD. 2020.
doi:10.21427/cjdp-a292