Food and Dining in George Boole's time in Victorian Cork
This illustrated lecture by Ms. Regina Sexton will explore the food and dining cultures of Cork City in the Victorian period as experienced by George Boole.
In the late 1840s, in the years immediately following the Great Famine, George Boole was new to Cork, appointed as the first Professor of Mathematics at Queen’s College, Cork and so as a newcomer, his observations about the cultural mores of Cork and its environs hold interesting detail. In a series of letters he wrote from Cork to his mother and his sister, Maryann, he provides us with glimpses of the city’s food and culinary culture. These letters together with a number of nineteenth century manuscript recipe collections from Cork will serve as a backdrop to discussing food and culinary practices in mid-nineteenth century Cork city.