The 1641 rebellion has attracted a good deal of attention in recent years thanks to the online release of the ‘1641 Depositions’, collected from Protestant survivors in the aftermath. But as John Gibney explains, Irish Catholics had their own views on what had happened in 1641. When agents of the Irish … Read more
Sir,—I’m delighted to see some work being done on the role of navies in Irish history. You and Elaine Murphy are to be congratulated on highlighting a much-neglected topic (‘“Pirates in our channel”: the Cromwellian navy in Ireland, 1649–53’, HI 19.4, July/August 2011). Ireland is an island, but in many works on its history one … Read more
In the 1630s King Charles I devoted considerable resources to increasing the strength of the royal navy by building large ships such as the Sovereign of the Seas. In 1642, however, at the outbreak of civil war in England, the bulk of the navy sided with parliament rather than with the king. By the summer … Read more
On 13 August 1649 Oliver Cromwell and a flotilla of around 35 ships sailed from Milford Haven to Dublin. Cromwell spent most of the voyage being seasick. A second, larger fleet of approximately 84 vessels sailed the next day and also arrived at Dublin after adverse weather prevented them from landing in Munster. A third, … Read more
The struggle over Cromwell’s legacy came to a head in the 1890s with the plans to erect a statue on the grounds of the British parliament at Westminster. The governing Liberal Party strongly supported the proposal in the hope of consolidating the nonconformingfe in England and by all accounts detested the place. Neither man could … Read more