Adam Kane
"Irish Women as Investors in the Financial Sphere, 1700-1900"
Adam Kane is a PhD candidate in the UCD School of History. His research considers the extent to which Irish women participated in the financial sphere between 1800-1900, with a particular emphasis upon the motive and circumstantial factors that incentivised engagement with emerging financial instruments and ventures. Recent scholarship within an English context has demonstrated that many women were compelled to invest as security against advanced age, infirmity, and attendant penury – as a result, many such investors were either ‘spinsters’ or widows, placing their capital in companies which promised modest, albeit reliable, returns. Ireland presents certain corollaries with its sister isle, with its women appearing to have invested in many of the same ventures; railways, canals, waterworks, gas, and shipping companies appear to have been popular prospects. However, the precise reasons for this are yet unclear and definitive determinations are complicated by the fragmentary and dispersed nature of the relevant archival evidence. Differences in the social, political, and religious make-up of the island add a layer of further intrigue and distinction; convents and groups of nuns, for example, are frequently shown to have purchased stocks and shares in shipping and railway companies for reasons which must surely complicate the narrative of insurance and subsistence. My work, therefore, seeks to distil an understanding of these phenomena through an imaginative and creative use of personal papers, financial ephemera, periodicals and newspapers, and public records. It is hoped that availing of a broad spectrum of archival evidence will provide a nuanced and comprehensive view of the Irish financial landscape during the period, while simultaneously offering a series of fresh insights into how Irish women participated and engaged with its ever-changing terms.
E-mail: (opens in a new window)adam.kane1@ucdconnect.ie
PhD Supervisor(s): (opens in a new window)Dr. Andrew McDiarmid; (opens in a new window)Prof. Ivar McGrath.
Academic Achievements:
2021-2022: MPhil in Modern Irish History, Trinity College Dublin - Awarded European Excellence Award.
2015-2019: BA(Hons) in English and History, Carlow College, St. Patrick's - Awarded James Fintan Lawlor Student of the Year & Father McDonnell Research Prize for Best History Dissertation.
Research Interests: Social history, History of the Irish public and institutions, History of marginalised communities, classes, and identities.
Time Period: c.1700-1900, particularly the "long" Irish revolution c.1890-1923.
Publications:
Kane, A., "I am hard-set to get the bite and sup; in fact sometimes I cannot" - Dependants, Process, and Privation in Carlow’s Civil War Pension Files, Carloviana (2024), Dec 6, 2023.
Kane, A., "Is Ireland a Nation or a Slave State?” - The Nationalist, the Paris-Peace Conference, and Irish Self-Determination, 1918-1919’ Carloviana (2023), Dec 15, 2022.
Kane, A., ”A Peaceable and Orderly County?”: An Analysis of Police-Public Relations in Carlow County During the War of Independence, 1918-21’ Carloviana (2022), Dec 2, 2021.
Kane A., "Primary education and Carlow town, 1824-1884: evaluating the efficacy of the 1831 National School System", Carloviana (2020), Nov 28, 2019.