Steamships, Famine, Cattle, and the Transformation of Dublin Port 1820-1860

This illustrated lecture by David Dickson will discuss the impact of the introduction of steamships on Dublin in the pre-famine era, focussing on the remarkable rise of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. (CDSPC). It will then examine how steamships in general and the CDSPC in particular shaped the history of the Great Famine in Dublin port, and will reflect on the rise and fall of the canals in this story, then and after.

David Dickson is Professor Emeritus of Modern History in Trinity College Dublin and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has published extensively on the social, economic and cultural history of Ireland since the seventeenth century, with a recurring interest in the regions. Past projects have ranged from famine, estate history, and eighteenth-century urbanization to the 1798 rebellion and Ireland's entanglement with empire.

Major publications have included Old World Colony: Cork and South Munster 1630-1830 (Cork & Madison, 2005); Dublin: The Making of a Capital City (London & Cambridge, MA, 2014), and The First Irish Cities: An Eighteenth-century Transformation (New Haven & London, 2021). He has recently published chapters in Ireland, Slavery and the Caribbean, eds. Finola O’Kane & Ciaran O’Neill (Manchester, 2023) and in Waterford and the Wider World 1575-1825, ed. John Bergin et al. (Dublin, 2026). He is currently part of a team of five editors that have prepared The Moore Letters for publication by the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

The lecture is presented by the OPW as part of the 2026 Cultural Programme at Rathfarnham Castle. Doors open at 3pm and the presentation runs from 3.30pm to 4.30pm.

Image: 'A View of the Fine City of Dublin, Capital of Ireland’ created by the artist/engraver John Smyth and published as a special supplement to The Illustrated London News on the 6th of June 1846.