John Plunket Joly and the Great Famine in King's County

Ciarán Reilly

‘Joly lived from 1826 to 1858 and his diary provided Reilly with the chance to examine at first hand the society of an Anglo-Irish landlord at this time. It makes for surprising reading to come across accounts of soirées, dancing and similar entertainments in the midst of a catastrophe. However this is not a rosy-eyed view of the landlord class as Reilly contrasts the life of the Joly family with that of their tenants and others who were hard hit by the famine', Books Ireland (October 2012).