During the first decade of the seventeenth century, Ulster, traditionally a bastion of Gaelic society and culture, was transformed in a relatively short time by the military defeat and subsequent departure to the Continent of the northern earls, Rory O’Donnell and Hugh O’Neill. Moreover, the unsuccessful revolt in 1608 of Sir Cahir O’Doherty persuaded the … Read more
In the Tudor period England had done its best to keep Scotland out of any dealings with the third of James VI and I’s kingdoms, Ireland. Those who had attempted plantations under Elizabeth did not want the Scots involved. The helpful offers of Archibald, earl of Argyll, in the 1560s to support the English viceroy … Read more
Sir Cahir O’Doherty’s short-lived rebellion in 1608 took almost everyone by surprise. He had shown himself to be a very willing collaborator with the English Crown in the decisive phase of the Nine Years’ War (1594–1603) and afterwards. Yet O’Doherty was driven to conclude that his earnest efforts to integrate himself into the Stuart … Read more
Sir Walter Ralegh in Ireland Sir John Pope Hennessy Classics of Irish History series, with introduction by Thomas Herron (University College Dublin Press, €24. Originally published by Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1883) ISBN 9781906359188 Tom Herron has delivered an enhanced version of this short book by a nineteenth-century Irish politician on a … Read more
‘The Wild Geese’ is the romantic term traditionally applied to the men who left Ireland to join the armies of European countries. Beginning in the sixteenth century, large numbers of Irishmen enlisted in the armies of Spain, France, Austria and Russia. Many soldiers hoped eventually to return to Ireland and throw off foreign rule. This … Read more