British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland

Description

This book offers a new perspective on Irish History from the late sixteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. Many of the chapters address, from national, regional and individual perspectives, the key events, institutions and processes that transformed the history of early modern Ireland. Others probe the nature of Anglo-Irish relations, Ireland's ambiguous constitutional position during these years and the problems inherent in running a multiple monarchy. Where appropriate, the volume adopts a wider comparative approach and casts fresh light on a range of historiographical debates, including the 'New British Histories', the nature of the 'General Crisis' and the question of Irish exceptionalism. Collectively, these essays challenge and complicate traditional paradigms of conquest and colonization. By examining the inconclusive and contradictory manner in which English and Scottish colonists established themselves in the island, it casts further light on all of its inhabitants during the early modern period.

Ciaran Brady is Lecturer in History at Trinity College, Dublin. His previous publications include The Chief Governors: The Rise and Fall of Reform Government in Tudor Ireland, 1536-1588 (1995). Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith Professor of Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin. Her previous publications include Civil War and Restoration in the Three Stuart Kingdoms (1993), Ireland from Independence to Occupation, 1641-1660 (1995), Kingdom or Colony?: Political Thought in Seventeenth-Century Ireland (2000).

'... rich and important ...' Reviews in History '... these very different essays testify to the vitality and sophistication of Irish historical studies of the seventeenth century.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History