In 1689 Irish men and women were drawn into the struggle between the Catholic James II and the Protestant William III for the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. This was the most ‘conventional’ war between the Nine Years’ War and the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland, with two major European-scale battles in the field and … Read more
It is hardly surprising that Irish historians have been reluctant to engage with negative later medieval English perceptions of Ireland (see sidebar below), other than to impugn their veracity. In regard to the English Pale, for instance, studies of interaction between Gaedhil and Gaill have aimed to disprove its status as an international frontier; depictions … Read more
It was the Stuarts who introduced the Irish to the slave trade. Charles II returned to the throne in 1660 at a time when it was becoming clear that sugar plantations were as valuable as gold-mines. The Royal Africa Company (RAC) was established to supply slaves to the British West Indies in order to extend … Read more
Sir, —I am grateful to the Revd Canon and Dr Silke for his historiographical criticism of the special Flight of the Earls issue of History Ireland (15.4, July/August 2007) as a whole and for his comments on my own offering to the journal. What a pity that the internationally recognised authority on Kinsale and on … Read more
In the late twelfth-century Anglo-Norman marriage market, the teenage Isabel de Clare was a very desirable prize. Under Anglo-Norman feudal law, the marriage of her parents, Strongbow and Aoife, and the related succession agreement between Strongbow and Isabel’s maternal grandfather, Diarmait Mac Murchada, united the holdings of the two families. But when Strongbow died in 1176 there … Read more