Fallon, Peter K.

Dr. Peter K. Fallon is Assistant Professor of Journalism at Roosevelt University in Chicago. A veteran of over two decades in television, he was an electronic journalist with NBC News in New York. Dr. Fallon teaches and writes about issues of ethics and social justice in mass communication.

PRINTING, LITERACY AND EDUCATION IN 18TH CENTURY IRELAND Why the Irish Speak English

2005 0-7734-6033-0
This book details the history of the spread of printing and literacy in eighteenth century Ireland. In addition to being a historical survey, it is also a study, in the “media ecological” vein, that explores what happens when a new technology is introduced to a given culture. This work answers three key questions: first, why did print technology take so long (300 years after Gutenberg) to become a cultural influence in Ireland; second, why was there an “explosion” of printing and presses in Ireland between 1750 and 1800 and finally, why, when a printing industry had been established, was almost the entire output of printed literature in English rather than the Irish language?