Finola O'Kane is Professor in Architecture at University College Dublin.Ciaran O’Neill is Ussher Associate Professor in History at Trinity College Dublin.

'Natalie A Zacek provides a sharply contemporary perspective on public debate and identity, deconstructing, inter alia, the ‘Irish Slave’ meme in ‘How the Irish became black’. This invaluable publication disentangles the polarities of subjects and agents, insularity and global dynamics.'Sylvie Kleinman, History Island'The story of Ireland in Empire cannot be told without reference to the multifaceted nature of Ireland’s role in that Empire and this collection is a vital resource in that regard. It will surely prompt further work not only in relation to Ireland and the Caribbean but also force questions about Ireland’s role elsewhere in the British Empire and beyond. There are essays here that alter our fundamental understanding of Irish Studies and as such this collection is essential for scholars and students alike.'Ellen Howley, Irish Studies Review

• Foreword - Sir Hilary BecklesIntroduction – Finola O’Kane and Ciaran O’NeillPart I: Setting Out the Terrain1. Setting out the terrain: Ireland and the Caribbean in the eighteenth century - David Dickson 2. From Perfidious Papists to Prosperous Planters: Making Irish elites in the early modern English Caribbean - Jenny Shaw3. Free, and unfree – Ireland and Barbados, 1620-60- David Brown4. Trade, plunder and Irishmen in early English Jamaica – Nuala Zahedieh5. Doing business in the wartime Caribbean: John Byrn, Irish merchant of Kingston, Jamaica (September – October 1756) - Thomas M. TruxesPart II: Consolidating Territories6. Ireland and British Colonial Slave-ownership 1763-1833 - Nick Draper7. Soldiers, settlers, slavers: Irish lives on the Spanish borderlands of North America and the Caribbean in the revolutionary 1790s- José Shane Brownrigg-Gleeson8. Searching for sovereignties: the formation of the penal laws and slave codes in Ireland and the British Caribbean, c. 1680 to c. 1720 - Aaron Graham9. Comparing Imperial design strategies; The Franco-Irish plantations of Saint-Domingue - Finola O'Kane10. Eyre Coote, the House of Assembly and the Defence of Jamaica, 1806-8 - David Fleming11. In search of excess: Lambert Blair and his appetites - Ciaran O'NeillPart III: Comparative Perspectives12. Two islands, many forts: Ireland and Bermuda in 1624 - Emily Mann13. Imperial barrack-building in 18C Ireland and Jamaica– Charles Ivar McGrath14. The architectures of empire in Jamaica: the Irish legacy ­ Louis P. Nelson15. Designed in parallel or in translation?: The connected landscapes of Kelly’s Pen, Jamaica and Westport, Co. Mayo - Finola O’Kane16. Formations and Deformations of Empire: Maria Edgeworth and the West Indies - Claire Connolly17. How the Irish became black- Natalie Zacek18. ‘Where are you actually from?’: Racial issues in the Irish context – Sandrine Uwase NdahiroIndex