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rundale
rundale, regionally varied forms of infield‐outfield agriculture widespread in the later 18th and early 19th centuries in the north and west of Ireland, but largely disappearing after the Famine. Practised as a form of collective farming by extended families holding land on a joint tenancy from a landlord, rundale typically included potato gardens, permanently cultivated infields, periodically cultivated pastoral outfields, and additional summer transhumance or ‘booley’ pastures. Each family held a number of arable strips in the infield which were periodically reallocated according to custom or demand, sometimes under the direction of a local ‘headman’. The arable was used for both subsistence (potatoes) and cash crops (oats). The associated clachan settlements were characteristically irregular.
Rundale is sometimes argued to have originated in pre‐Norman times, and to have survived the subsequent medieval and early modern commercialization of Irish farming as the farming system of semi‐servile betagh and, latterly, peasant groups in environmentally less favoured districts. While there is archaeological and historical evidence for the existence of early field systems which could support this interpretation, it is by no means certain that it is correct. It may be more appropriate to see rundale as the late 18th‐century consequence of the interaction between existing traditions of partible inheritance, rapid population growth, and increasing dependence on the potato. The excessive subdivision encouraged by the system ensured that it was eventually incapable of supporting this population growth even before the Famine struck. Lindsay Proudfoot |
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Cite this article
"rundale." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "rundale." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-rundale.html "rundale." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-rundale.html |
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rundale
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "rundale." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "rundale." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-rundale.html T. F. HOAD. "rundale." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-rundale.html |
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