Irish Historical Monographs – serie

Provides a thorough examination of the role of women in Ascendancy Ireland.The late seventeenth and early eighteenth century was a period of great social and political change within Ireland, as the Protestant Ascendancy gained control of the country, aided by the English government and aristocracy, withwhom the ruling class in Ireland mixed through marriage and travel. The resulting Anglo-Irish elite, with its distinct transnational identity, differed markedly from the preceding Irish elite, but, at the same time, because of itsIrish dimension, was very different also from the contemporary English and Scottish upper classes. Women played key roles in this Anglo-Irish elite, and the nature of the Protestant Ascendancy can only be completely understood byconsidering women's roles fully.This book provides a thorough examination of the role of women in Ascendancy Ireland. It discusses marriage, family and social life; explores women's roles in economic and political life and in charitable activities; and places Irish elite women of this period in their wider historiographical context. The book is based on extensive original research, including among the papers of aristocratic families in Ireland and Britain, and provides a wealth of detail on elite women's lives in this period.Rachel Wilson completed her doctorate in modern history at Queen's University, Belfast.

Relates charity movements to religious impulse, Enlightenment 'improvement' and the fears of the Protestant ruling elite that growing social problems, unless addressed, would weaken their rule.The philanthropic impulse to engage in charitable work and to encourage economic "improvement" was sharpened in eighteenth-century Ireland as Irish Protestants became increasingly aware of the threat that social problems, such aspoverty, disease and criminality, posed to their rule. One response to this threat was the establishment of a number of voluntary societies which sought to address the different problems plaguing Ireland. This book examines a number of these voluntary societies, including those concerned with promoting education, supporting hospitals, and improving agriculture and manufacturing. It shows how these movements differed from earlier efforts in organisation, method and aims and demonstrates the connection between religiously motivated charities, Enlightenment-inspired scientific societies and the Irish government. It pays particular attention to the role of women, both as supporters of,and objects of, charity. It argues that, together, these movements aspired to purge Ireland of what they saw as destabilising factors that weakened the Anglo-Irish state. Improvers reflected Enlightenment-era optimism about the perfectibility of society and saw themselves as serving the interests and aspirations of the nation.Karen Sonnelitter is Assistant Professor of History at Siena College, Loudonville, New York. She completed her doctorate at Purdue University.

Crossing boundaries of political, intellectual and cultural history, this study highlights the complexity of political culture in Restoration Ireland.This book focuses on how historical memory and political discourse affected land settlement and political processes in early Restoration Ireland. The period 1660-1667 was one of insecurity for the Protestant plantation in Ireland,as Catholic spokesmen undermined the Protestant status quo. The Stuart Restoration and the English in Ireland draws out the dynamism of the rhetorical, moral and legal challenges that Catholics made to Protestant power inIreland and examines the Protestant responses and the rise of a Protestant identity inextricably linked with the possession of power. This identity was expressed as that of the 'English in Ireland', a belligerent self-denominationwhich did little to accommodate the king or the importance of monarchy to the Protestant position in the country. Crossing boundaries of political, intellectual and cultural history, the book highlights the complexity of political culture in Restoration Ireland, which was defined by the intersection of political language, ideas, historical understandings and economic imperatives.DANIELLE McCORMACK is Assistant Professor at the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.

The extraordinary life story of an ambitious, thirteenth-century adventurer.This book charts the striking rise, fall and restoration of the first earl of Ulster, Hugh II de Lacy, described by one contemporary chronicler as 'the most powerful of the English in Ireland'. A younger son of the lord of Meath,de Lacy ascended from relatively humble beginnings to join the top stratum of Angevin society, being granted in 1205 the first earldom in Ireland by King John. Subsequently, in 1210, having been implicated in rebellion, Hugh wasexpelled from Ulster by a royal army and joined the Albigensian crusade against Cathar heretics in southern France. Unusually, after almost two decades in exile and a second revolt against the English crown, de Lacy was restored to the earldom of Ulster by King Henry III in 1227, retaining it to his death, c. 1242. Situated in the north-east of Ireland, Ulster's remoteness from centres of colonial administration allowed Hugh de Lacy to operate beyondthe normal mechanisms of royal control, forging his own connections with other powerful lords of the Irish Sea province. The fluidity of noble identity in frontier zones is also underlined by the career of someone who, accordingto his political needs, presented himself to different audiences as a courtly sophisticate, freebooting colonist, crusading warrior, or maurauding 'Irish' ruler. The foundation for this study is provided by Hugh de Lacy's acta, provided as an appendix, and representing the first collection of comital charters in an Irish context. These cast fresh light on the wider themes of power and identity, the intersection of crown and nobility, and the risks and rewards for ambitious frontiersmen in the Angevin world. Daniel Brown obtained his PhD from Queen's University Belfast, and completed his research on Hugh de Lacy as a postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College Dublin.

The book highlights the scale of disorder and the many difficulties faced by the authorities.This book explores the connexion between collective action, popular politics and policing in Ireland from the end of the Williamite war in 1691 to the outbreak of the Whiteboy agrarian protest in 1761. It considers the impact madeby the people who maintained order - civilian officers, the army and militias, and bands of irregular forces - outlining not only the many problems that they faced but also the effects on Irish society of their abuses. The book highlights the conflict between authorities, who were enforcing laws, and crowds, who were enforcing popular notions of justice, as well as the changes taking place in the ethics of law enforcement. It shows how increasing taxes collected by the Irish government, used mainly to pay for the British army, resulted in a proliferation of violent protests in most parts of Ireland in the early eighteenth century. In addition, the book discusses popular attitudesand belief systems, examines the conduct of rioters and members of the forces of order and reveals the moral compasses used during violent confrontations on both sides of the legal divide. Overall, the book's investigation of large-scale disorder leads us to a better understanding of the relationships between rulers and the ruled in Ireland in this period.TIMOTHY D. WATT is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of History at University College Dublin.

Overturns established thinking that the Catholic elite were all expropriated and excluded from civil and political life as the Protestant Ascendancy was established.Traditional accounts of early modern Ireland have traced the seemingly inevitable decline of the Catholic landed interest following the Cromwellian and Williamite wars of the seventeenth century, portraying the Irish Catholic community as leaderless and politically moribund in the decades after the surrender of Limerick in 1691. This book demonstrates, however, that the picture was considerably more complex. By taking advantage of the upheavals in Irish landownership of the 1650s, many Catholics not only survived, but thrived. Having emerged as leaders of the Irish Catholic interest during the 1680s, these landowners refused to go into exile following the surrender of the Jacobites. They do not fit neatly into the archetype of the dispossessed and discontented Irish Catholic, offering instead an alternative perspective on Irish Jacobitism. Using the career of Colonel John Browne of Westport House as a focalpoint, this book casts new light on a wide range of subjects, including Catholic opposition to the repeal of the Restoration land settlement, the Irish Jacobite civil and military administration, estate management in late seventeenth-century Ireland, and the creation of lobbying networks in Dublin and London by Irish Catholics. The book also provides a detailed examination of the Williamite peace settlement in Ireland, and highlights the deeply interconnected nature of Irish society in the late seventeenth century. EOIN KINSELLA completed his doctorate at University College Dublin

Examines the divided loyalties of the descendants of Ireland's Anglo-Norman conquerors during the wars against the Irish confederate rebels.WINNER of the NUI Publication Prize in Irish History 2019Descendants of Ireland's Anglo-Norman conquerors, the Old English had upheld the authority of the English crown in Ireland for four centuries. Yet the sixteenth century witnessed the demotion of this Irish-born and predominantly Catholic community from places of trust and authority in the Irish administration in favour of English Protestant newcomers. Political alienation and growing religious tensions strained crown-community relations and caused many Old Englishmen to reconsider their future in Ireland.The Nine Years' War (1594-1603) presented them with an ideal opportunity to reassess their relationshipwith the crown when the Irish Confederates, led by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, sought their support. This book explores the role of the Old English during the Nine Years' War. It discusses the impact of divided loyalties, examines how they responded to political, social, religious, and military pressures, and assesses how the war shaped their sense of identity. The book demonstrates that despite the anxieties of English officials, the Old English remained loyal. More than that, they played a key role in defeating the Irish Confederacy through military and financial support. It argues that their sense of tradition and duty to uphold English rule in Ireland was central to their identity and that appeals to embrace a new Irish Catholic identity, in partnership with the Gaelic Irish, was doomed to failure.RUTH CANNING is Lecturer in Early Modern History at Liverpool Hope University.

Reassesses the context in which the state of Northern Ireland was created.Most studies of the Irish Revolution focus on republican violence and on the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. This book, on the other hand, based on extensive original research, considers the situation in the north of Ireland, which was predominantly unionist and affected much less by republican violence. The book examines unionist violence, including the riots during which Catholic homes and businesses in Lisburn were burned, discusses the establishment of the state of Northern Ireland and its security forces, and explores largely constitutional response of Northern Ireland's nationalist community and how this community was affected. It discusses the relationship between politicians, the British government and local communities, assesses the degree to which unionist violence was a reaction to republican violence, and provides a detailed analysis of the Northern Irish security force, the Ulster Special Constabulary. The book concludes that although the Ulster Special Constabulary was clearly drawn from one community, claims that its membership was deliberately recruited according to its ability to inflict havoc on the Catholic population are not correct.

An in-depth analysis of the key contribution made by the women members of this important ruling family in maintaining and advancing the family's political, landed, economic, social and religious interests.This book examines the lives of aristocratic Anglo-Irish women in late medieval and early modern Ireland as illustrated by an in-depth cross generational analysis of women born or married into the important Ormond family between the 1450s and 1660. It outlines and assesses their individual and collective significance in negotiating the preservation and advancement of the family's political, landed, economic, social and confessional interests, from the chronic instability of the Wars of the Roses, through the vicissitudes of the Tudor, Stuart, Commonwealth and Restoration eras. In gauging the relative significance of the Ormond women's experiences and contributions, the book explores their roles in both private dynastic and wider public circles within the broader context of aristocratic families elsewhere in Ireland, England and continental Europe. The cross-generational approach provides a chronologicaland comparative appraisal of all aspects of each of these women's lives, roles and contributions - private, public, social, economic, confessional and political - all of which were intimately intertwined with the Ormond family's changing political fortunes, succession challenges, shifting dynastic alliances, and financial difficulties over the course of two centuries of profound change and upheaval in Ireland.

The fascinating life of Frances Jennings, elder sister of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, charting her marriages and changes of fortune, her exile and return, her ambition, political manoeuvring and sincere piety.Frances Jennings, elder sister of Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, had an interesting and eventful life, most notably as the influential wife of Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnell, Catholic viceroy of Ireland under James II. Born circa 1649 into a Hertfordshire gentry family, she was a noted beauty at the Restoration court. There, she met and married George Hamilton, a Catholic officer who, after 1667, served in Louis XIV's army. In Paris, Frances raised three daughters, converted to Catholicism, and became an active member of the English Catholic émigré community. Following Hamilton's death, she remarried to Richard Talbot. As vicereine of Ireland, Frances helped re-establish Catholic hegemony, assisting in the foundation of convents and re-consecration of Christ Church cathedral. During the Williamite-Jacobite War in Ireland (1689-91), Frances fled to James II's exiled court in France. In 1691, she received word that her husband, now Jacobite duke of Tyrconnell, had died. Attainted for high treason, she used the Marlboroughs' influence to recover her Irish estates. In 1708, she returned to Dublin, where she died in 1731. Highlighting Frances's political manoeuvrings, religious identity and deep family attachments, this book portrays a complex and contested figure, a woman who acted on multiple stages, in diverse roles, challenging expectations of rank, gender, and 'nationality' in unexpected ways.

Challenges the argument that the English Pale was contracting during the early Tudor period.A key argument of this book is that the English Pale - the four counties around Dublin under English control - was expanding during the early Tudor period, not contracting, as other historians have argued. The author shows how the new system, whereby "the four obedient shires" were protected by new fortifications and a newly-constituted English-style militia, which replaced the former system of extended marches, was highly effective, making unnecessary money and troops from England, and enabling the Dublin government to be self-financing. The book provides full details of this new system. It also demonstrates how direct rule by an English army and governor, which replaced the system in the years after 1534, was much more costly and led on in turn to the policy of "surrender and regrant" under which Irish chiefs became subject to English law. The book highlights how this policy made the English Pale's frontiers redundant, but how ideologically ideas of "English civility" nevertheless survived, and "the wild Atlantic way" remained "beyond the Pale".

This book examines the environmental, political, and economic history of Ireland's marine fisheries from 1400 to 1600. It combines a wide range of historical sources with innovative digital research methods to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview. Government letters and court documents highlight the diverse range of fishing fleets from across Europe that visited Irish waters in the early sixteenth century, bringing wealth and cultural influence to the native Irish, who developed complex systems to protect and tax the visitors. Furthermore, trade records illustrate that fish was Ireland's premier export in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. However, a range of factors led to the industry's collapse by the end of the sixteenth century: the Tudor conquest which disrupted fishing operations and fundamentally altered who controlled fishing resources; the destabilization of Irish waters resulting from the terrestrial conflict, which allowed pirates to thrive; an influx of cheap cod from the newly exploited fisheries in Newfoundland which changed consumption patterns in Ireland and across Europe; and shifting climatic conditions and decades of over-exploitation which meant fewer fish and poorer catches. Overall, the book reveals that fisheries form a vital part of the broader environmental, political, and economic history of Ireland.

The lives and experiences of Irish women religious highlight how an expanding nexus of female houses perpetuated European Counter-Reformation devotion in Ireland.JOINT WINNER: 2023 National University of Ireland's Publication Prize in Irish HistoryHONORABLE MENTION: 2023 Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender (USA) Book AwardsSHORT-LISTED: Royal Historical Society 2023 Whitfield Book Prize LONG-LISTED: 2023 Reformation Research Consortium (REFORC) Book AwardThis book investigates the impact of the dissolution of the monasteries on women religious and examines their survival in the following decades, showing how, despite the state's official proscription of vocation living, religious vocation options for women continued in less formal ways. McShane explores the experiences of Irish women who travelled to the Continent in pursuit of formal religious vocational formation, covering both those accommodated in English and European continental convents' and those in the Irish convents established in Spanish Flanders and the Iberian Peninsula. Further, this book discusses the revival of religious establishments for women in Ireland from 1629 and outlines the links between these new convents and the Irish foundations abroad. Overall, this study provides a rich picture of Irish women religious during a period of unprecedented change and upheaval.

A reassessment of the rivalry between the two great Anglo-Norman magnate families in late medieval and early modern Ireland, putting forward a new interpretation of events.The Fitzgerald Earls of Kildare and the Butler Earls of Ormond were the foremost old colonial magnates in the late medieval Lordship of Ireland. Rivals for power and influence throughout the island but in particular for the post of chief governor, the principal representative of the English crown in Ireland, their struggle for mastery expressed itself in multiple ways ranging from competition for cultural hegemony to outright military confrontation. This book, based on extensive original research including hitherto unexplored evidence from literary sources and material culture, serves to counterbalance the anti-Kildare impression given by official documents such as the State Papers, which stressed that the objective of a military conquest of Gaelic Ireland was paramount. Instead, the book argues that the Kildare-Ormond rivalry was a more subtle and sophisticated conflict between two different concepts of what Ireland should be, the frequently dominant Fitzgeralds promoting the idea of Ireland as an integrated polity with the recognition and co-option of leading figures in Gaelic Ireland, the opposing Butlers embodying the traditional Cambro-Norman ideas of conquest. However, it is further argued that these opposing positions were not fundamental but conditional, dependent upon which great house held the chief governorship. The book elaborates on these alternating concepts of Ireland, showing how the political war between the two magnate families, and the accompanying culture war, played out over time.

This book examines the place of imperialism in the cultural, political and economic life of late nineteenth-century Irish society.It highlights the tensions which arose because Ireland was at the same time both a colonial subject of Britain, yet also shared aspects of the imperial culture which was being formed during this period. It considers how Empire seeped into everyday Irish life, explores how Irish men and Irish women were intimately bound up with British expansionism, with imperial achievements and setbacks enthusiastically covered in many national and local newspapers, and discusses how Irish politicians and students vehemently debated imperial matters in public. It addresses key questions including: What were the similarities and differences with Britain's imperial experience? Was there a general awareness and understanding of the implications of British overseas expansion? How was Ireland's ambiguous role in Britain's imperial enterprise perceived: did the Irish regard themselves as empire-makers, opponents of British national chauvinism, or occupying a more neutral role? Overall, the book provides a nuanced analysis of the impact of the British Empire in Ireland, demonstrating how the Empire was central to Ireland's late nineteenth-century historical experience - for nationalists and unionists alike.

A comprehensive overview of the British army in Ireland in the eighteenth century and the army's relationship with the local population.The eighteenth-century army in Ireland, which consisted of 12,000 to 15,000 men, and which was its own quasi-independent "Establishment", paid for, housed by, and commanded from Dublin, represented a significant proportion of overall British military forces. This book, based on extensive original research, presents an overview of army life in Ireland in the period. It covers the administration of the Irish Establishment, recruitment, desertion, criminality, drunkenness, everyday routines, soldier-civilian relations, the response of soldiers to growing revolutionary unrest, and more. It overturns much established thinking, demonstrating for example that desertion in the army in Ireland was no different from desertion in the army elsewhere, that the army in Ireland was well-trained and efficient, and that Irish soldiers were far more common in British service than previously thought. In addition, the book discusses ideas of masculinity, the army's place in the defence of Ireland against foreign invasion, in securing the ascendancy regime and in suppressing unrest, and the unusual situation of Ireland as both subject and participant in the development of the British empire.

A study of an unexpected large-scale migration, of the many issues it gave rise to, and of its aftermath.Although Ireland is usually thought of as a place from which people emigrate, there was in the early eighteenth century a significant immigration to Ireland of 'poor Palatines' from southwestern states of the Holy Roman Empire. This book explores this mass immigration and the related issues. It outlines what caused the sudden movement of so many people in one six-month period - successive wars, widespread devastation, famine and the notably cold winter of 1708/09. It discusses the role of pan European Protestantism, with churchmen working alongside colonists and shows how the migration was a Whig initiative, supported by a major public relations exercise in which leading literary figures participated. It situates the migration within the migration of poor Palatines more widely in Britain and Britain's American colonies and examines the subsequent evolution of the Palatine community as they struggled with problems of identity and worked to settle and integrate, in some cases making significant contributions to Irish life. Throughout, the book highlights the debates, familiar at present, as to whether migrants were potential contributors to the wealth of a nation, or simply a likely drain on a nation's resources.

Essays offer a chronological survey of the development of English policy towards Ireland in the late 17th - early 18th century.In a series of studies, David Hayton offers a comprehensive account of the government of Ireland during the period of transformation from "New English" colonialism to Anglo-Irish "patriotism", providing a chronological survey of the development of English policy towards Ireland and an account of the changing political structure of Ireland; particular attention is paid to the emergence of an English-style party system under Queen Anne. The Anglo-Irish dimension is also explored, through crises of high politics, and through an examination of the role played by Irish issues at Westminster. In his introduction Professor Hayton provides historical perspective, and establishes Irish political developments firmly in their British context. Professor D.W. HAYTON is Reader in Modern History at Queen's University, Belfast.

An innovative and original contribution to the history of European migration between the mid-nineteenth century and the interwar years.I have at last reached the desired haven', exclaimed Belfast-born Bessie Macready in 1878, the year of her arrival at Lyttelton, when writing home to cousins in County Down. There was a huge amount of worldwide European migrationbetween the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, a phenomenon which this book examines. Making close use of personal correspondence exchanged between Ireland and New Zealand, the author addresses a number of central questions in migration history, including the circumstances of departure; why some connections chose to stay; how migrant letter writers depicted their voyage out, the environment, work, family and neighbours, politics, and faith; and the prevalence of return and repeat migration. Throughout, the book gives significant attention to the social networks constraining and enabling migrants. It also considers broader debates in the history of European migration, relating to the use of personal testimony to chart the experiences of emigrants and the uncertain processes of adaptation, incorporation, and adjustment that migrants underwent in new and sometimes unfamiliar environments.

Demonstrates that separatist thinking in Ireland was crucial even when the political focus was on home rule.This book analyses Fenian influences on Irish nationalism between the Phoenix Park murders of 1882 and the Easter Rising of 1916. It challenges the convention that Irish separatist politics before the First World War were marginaland irrelevant, showing instead that clear boundaries between home rule and separatist nationalism did not exist. Kelly examines how leading home rule MPs argued that Parnellism was Fenianism by other means, and how Fenian politics were influenced by Irish cultural nationalism, which reinforced separatist orthodoxies, serving to clarify the ideological distance between Fenians and home rulers. It discusses how early Sinn Fein gave voice to these new orthodoxies, and concludes by examining the ideological complexities of the Irish Volunteers, and exploring Irish politics between 1914 and 1916.Dr MATTHEW KELLY is British Academy Research Fellow and Lecturer in Modern British History at Hertford College, University of Oxford.

Demonstrates that separatist thinking in Ireland was crucial even when the political focus was on home rule.This book analyses Fenian influences on Irish nationalism between the Phoenix Park murders of 1882 and the Easter Rising of 1916. It challenges the convention that Irish separatist politics before the First World War were marginaland irrelevant, showing instead that clear boundaries between home rule and separatist nationalism did not exist. Kelly examines how leading home rule MPs argued that Parnellism was Fenianism by other means, and how Fenian politics were influenced by Irish cultural nationalism, which reinforced separatist orthodoxies, serving to clarify the ideological distance between Fenians and home rulers. It discusses how early Sinn Fein gave voice to these new orthodoxies, and concludes by examining the ideological complexities of the Irish Volunteers, and exploring Irish politics between 1914 and 1916.

Discusses the reactions of seventeenth and eighteenth-century writers of Irish history to the unprecedented turbulence of the age.Ireland and the Irish, it is often argued, have been mired for centuries in mindsets which employ the past in order to trace and justify the enmities of the present. However, as Constructing the Past: Writing Irish History 1600-1800 seeks to underscore, the truth of such interactions with the Irish past is far more complex and dynamic. Spanning two hundred years of history, this book finds a relationship with the past which is as adaptive as it is rigid, as iconoclastic as it is reactionary. Beginning with an Introduction by Roy Foster, this innovative volume incorporates a wide range of perspectives on how history in Ireland has been written and perceived from the early-modern period onward. Drawing upon both key moments - including the Cromwellian invasion, the 1688 Revolution and 1798, to name a few - as well as forgotten incidents, each article discusses the ways in which the presentationof the past in Ireland has been forged by the circumstances of its writers and context of those memories. Drawing upon contributions by both highly accomplished and up-and-coming historians of Ireland, Britain and Europe, Constructing the Past seeks to illuminate how the Irish past has been constructed, torn down and again rebuilt by the Irish and historians of Ireland alike. STEPHEN PAUL FORREST serves as the Director of Operations forthe Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation; MARK WILLIAMS is currently reading for a Doctorate in Modern European History at Hertford College, Oxford.

The life and political career of William Conolly, a key figure in the establishment of the eighteenth century protestant ascendancy in Ireland.William Conolly (1662-1729) was one of the most powerful Irish political figures of his day. As a politician, in the years 1715-29 simultaneously Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, Chief Commissioner of the Revenue, Lord Justice, and Privy Councillor, he made significant contributions to the role of the Irish parliament in Irish life, to the establishment of a more efficient government bureaucracy, and to the emergence of a constructive strain of patriotism. In addition, he was a patron of architects, contributing significantly to the fashioning of Georgian Dublin, and building his own Palladian mansion at Castletown, nowadays one of the most frequently visited Irish historic properties. His rise to wealth and eminence from very humble beginnings and a Catholic background also illustrates the permeability of Irish society. Conolly's career reflects the development of the early Georgian Irish political,cultural and ideological nation, in all its complexities and contradictions. PATRICK WALSH is an IRCHSS Government of Ireland CARA mobility fellow jointly affiliated with University College London and University College Dublin. .

Shows how the development of the militia in eighteenth century Ireland was closely bound with politics and the changing nature of the Protestant Ascendancy.The militia in eighteenth century Ireland was a contentious issue: initially only those of a certain social and political class could participate, dissenters and catholics being excluded, and the degree of enthusiasm with which people participated was an indication of their commitment, or otherwise, to the regime. However, as this book demonstrates, the militia as an issue changed over the course of the eighteenth century, with, from about 1760, demands for the reform of the militia being a key issue spearheading demands for wider constitutional reform. The book traces the militia in Ireland from early Protestant militia forces in the sixteenth century, through formal establishmentin 1716, to demise in 1776 and re-formation in 1793. It shows how the militia played a larger role in the defence of Ireland than has hitherto been realised, and how its reliability was therefore a key point for government. It discusses how political debates about the militia reflected changing views about the nature of the Irish establishment and how these changing views were incorporated in legislation. It examines how the militia operated as an institution; considers how the militia reflected social and political divisions; and compares the militia in Ireland with similar bodies in England, Scotland and Europe more widely, relating debates about the militia in Ireland to widerdebates about whether a country is best defended by a professional soldiery or a citizen army. NEAL GARNHAM is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Ulster and the author of two books and more than twenty articles published in refereed academic journals.

Outlines the complex nature of the Anglo-Irish ruling class, showing how its multi-faceted identity was formed and how it evolved.The wars and revolutions of seventeenth-century Ireland established in power a ruling class of Protestant landowners whose culture and connexions were traditionally English, but whose interests and political loyalties were increasingly Irish. At first unsure of their self-image and ambivalent in their loyalties, they gradually became more confident and developed a distinctive notion of 'Irishness'. The Anglo-Irish Experience explores the religious,intellectual and political culture of this new elite during a period of change and adjustment. D.W. Hayton traces both the shifting sense of national identity characteristic of the period and the changing stereotype of the Irish in English popular literature - which did much to push the 'Anglo-Irish' to embrace their Irish heritage. He also argues for the emergence of a pragmatic, constructive form of political 'patriotism', linked closely to the prevailing ideology of economic 'improvement' and underpinned by the influence of evangelical Protestantism.A key feature of the book is the use made of case studies of individuals and families: the decay of the Ormond Butlers, undermined by debt and eventually driven into political exile; the rise and fall of the Brodricks, gentlemen lawyers with a strong provincial power-base; the political journey of the politician and political writer Henry Maxwell, from'commonwealth whig' ideologue to ministerial hack; and the relationship between Sir John Rawdon, a pious and intellectual squire, and his estate agent Thomas Prior, pamphleteer and apostle of 'improvement'. These and other narratives illustrate the variety and complexity of the 'Anglo-Irish' experience in a period that witnessed the foundation of what would in due course come to be known as the 'Protestant nation'. Early modern British and Irish historianswill find this book invaluable.D.W. Hayton is Professor of Early Modern Irish and British History at Queen's University Belfast, and the author of Ruling Ireland, 1685-1742: Politics, Politicians and Parties (Boydell, 2004)

A comprehensive survey and analysis of the Presbyterian community in its important formative period.The Presbyterian community in Ulster was created by waves of immigration, massively reinforced in the 1690s as Scots fled successive poor harvests and famine, and by 1700 Presbyterians formed the largest Protestant community in the north of Ireland. This book is a comprehensive survey and analysis of the Presbyterian community in this important formative period. It shows how the Presbyterians formed a highly organised, self-confident community which exercised a rigorous discipline over its members and had a well-developed intellectual life. It considers the various social groups within the community, demonstrating how the always small aristocratic and gentry component dwindled andwas virtually extinct by the 1730s, the Presbyterians deriving their strength from the middling sorts - clergy, doctors, lawyers, merchants, traders and, in particular, successful farmers and those active in the rapidly growing linen trades - and among the laborious poor. It discusses how Presbyterians were part of the economically dynamic element of Irish society; how they took the lead in the emigration movement to the American colonies; and how they maintained links with Scotland and related to other communities, in Ireland and elsewhere. Later in the eighteenth century, the Presbyterian community went on to form the backbone of the Republican, separatist movement.ROBERT WHAN obtained his Ph.D. in History from Queen's University, Belfast.

Shows how the Welsh, as well as the English, were colonisers in Tudor and early Stuart Ireland.The colonial presence in early modern Ireland is usually viewed as being thoroughly English, and in places Scottish, with the Welsh hardly featuring at all. This book, based on extensive original research, demonstrates that therewas in fact a significant Welsh involvement in Ireland between 1558 and 1641. It explores how the Welsh established themselves as soldiers, government officials and planters in Ireland. It also discusses how the Welsh, although participating in the 'English' colonisation of Ireland, nevertheless remained a distinct community, settling together and maintaining strong kinship and social and economic networks to fellow countrymen, including in Wales. It provides a detailed picture of the Welsh settler communities and their networks, and discusses the nature of Welsh settler identity. Overall, the book demonstrates how an understanding of the role of the Welsh in the shaping of early modern Ireland can offer valuable new perspectives on the histories of both countries and on the making of early modern Britain. Rhys Morgan completed his doctorate in history at Cardiff University

A detailed study of changing patterns of consumption, showing how these related to wider political, social and economic developments.This book, based on extensive original research, argues that everyday Irish consumption underwent major changes in the 16th century. The book considers the changing nature of imported goods in relation especially to two major activities of daily living: dress and diet. It integrates quantitative data on imports with qualitative sources, including wills, archaeological and pictorial evidence, and contemporary literature and legislation. It shows that changes in Irish consumption mirrored changes occurring in England and across Europe and that they were a function of broader developments in the Irish economy, including the increasing participation of Irish merchants in European markets. The book also discusses how consumption was related to wider political, economic and cultural developments in Ireland, showing how the acquisition and interpretation of material goods were key factors in the mediation of political and social boundaries in a semi-colonised and contested society.Susan Flavin completed her doctorate in early modern history at the University of Bristol.