From Broken Glass to Stained Paper: A Family and a Business in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Paul Star

Irish Economic and Social History, 2025, vol. 52, issue 1, 72-90

Abstract: From small beginnings running a glazing and house-painting business in Mountmellick, later members of the Star family became master-painters and wallpaper manufacturers in Dublin between 1820 and 1880. In Mountmellick, they were Anglicans with a Quaker clientele; in Dublin, a new generation became Catholics, serving a Catholic clientele and specialising in church decoration. Their story highlights both possibilities and problems in operating a business in nineteenth-century Ireland. It also gives a new angle on aspects of Ireland's ‘devotional revolution’, the nature of Irish nationalism and limits to Dublin's industrial development. Building on both historical and genealogical research, a look at one family business suggests how other families and their histories, in similar economic and social settings, could be described and analysed.

Keywords: house-painter; paper-stainer; glazier; Dublin; Mountmellick; Star; devotional revolution; urban industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03324893251348894 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ieshis:v:52:y:2025:i:1:p:72-90

DOI: 10.1177/03324893251348894

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Irish Economic and Social History
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().