The Honourable The Irish Society: still in business

In 1608–9, through a mixture of threats and promises from James I, the City of London become involved in the most planned and orderly of the various plantation schemes in Ireland. Fifty-five of its livery companies eventually became financial backers of the plantation, and in return their governing body, the Irish Society, received a royal … Read more

Anatomy of plantation: the 1641 Depositions

What are they? The 1641 Depositions are witness testimonies by mainly Protestant men and women, from all social backgrounds, concerning their experiences of the 1641 Irish rebellion. The testimonies document losses of goods and chattels, military activity and the alleged crimes of the Catholic Irish rebels, including assault, imprisonment, the stripping of clothes and murder. This body … Read more

Triall ar an tobar Gaelach

  Flúirseacht agus éagsúlacht na bhfoinsí Bíodh go raibh brú mór tubaisteach ar achan ghné de chóras na nGael sa chéad leath den tseachtú haois déag, tháinig blathú ar chúrsaí litríochta agus léinn. Bhí litríocht don scoth á cumadh sa tréimhse sin sna réimeanna éagsúla. Tá Annála Ríochta na hÉireann, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, Cín … Read more

1607 and all that: memory and Irish and American exceptionalism

Anniversaries invite us to explore ‘who we are’. In fact, they usually tell us a great deal more about those who commemorate than about what is commemorated. The year 2007 was a case in point. The planting of Jamestown and the Flight of the Earls transformed America, Ireland and England. Each of these events is … Read more