Thomas Bermingham: Nineteenth-century Irish land agent and “Improver

This study investigates the career of Thomas Bermingham, a professional land agent who was widely known in his day for his management of the Clonbrock estates in east Galway and Roscommon between 1827 and 1843. It deals with Bermingham’s efforts to ‘modernize’ the Clonbrock estates and his role in the promotion of Irish agricultural and infrastructural improvement before, during, and after the Great Famine. In the process, new light is shed upon the history of both Irish land agents and the culture of ‘improvement’ that rose to prominence throughout post-Napoleonic rural Ireland. [Subjects: Irish History; Nineteenth-Century History; Land Reform; Social History; Great Famine; Local History]