The graceful Georgian facades of this century bely the ugly reality of repression. Penal Laws kept Dissenting Protestants as well as Catholics out of politics and government but were far more numerous with regard to Catholics, especially for landholding and inheritance. The Church of Ireland ruling class (less than 10 per cent of the population) was fabulously wealthy. A nascent Protestant ‘nationalism’ protested against English domination, and this evolved, for some, into a recognition of the injustice of the Penal Laws by about 1770. Catholics, meanwhile, ducked and dived and did what they could, running schools and going to Mass when they could. Some held onto land. Some sons of the gentry served in continental armies. Some built up fortunes in commerce. Most were poor.

Transport networks improved, and fairs and markets increased. Wool, hides, provisions and timber exports throve. The potato soared in popularity, enabling people to survive on smallholdings. The population of the propertyless rose, even after the terrible mortality of the famine of 1739–1741.

Men and women writing in both languages found ready audiences (listening, watching and reading) for songs, poems, plays, essays and books. Irish was still the majority language but many Irish-speakers, especially the writers and poets, also understood English. Literacy levels rose and lively interest was taken in the news from America and France in the 1770s and 1780s.