Our understanding of the Church in Ireland before the Tudor reformations has long been distorted by a paradigm that insisted that it was ‘in decline’. Historians conventionally trawled through the records of centuries to find instances of pluralism, absenteeism, concubinage, simony and other disorders, without putting that evidence into context or offering any assessment as … Read more
Ireland and the British Empire Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series Kevin Kenny (ed.) Oxford University Press, £30 ISBN 0199251835 Victoria’s Ireland Peter Gray (ed.) Four Courts Press, £55 ISBN 185 1 827587 Irish participation in empire is most commonly considered a paradox: another unnatural by-product of the malign influence of British … Read more
Divided Gaels: Gaelic cultural identities in Scotland and Ireland c. 1200–c. 1650 Wilson McLeod (Oxford University Press, £50) ISBN 0 199 247226 Ulster and the Isles in the fifteenth century: the lordship of the Clann Domhnaill of Antrim Simon Kingston (Four Courts Press, £55) ISBN 1 851 827293 In the wake of the establishment … Read more
Sir,—I was intrigued to read Richard Roche’s letter concerning AlexisStafford in the summer 1996 issue of History Ireland. During theturbulent struggle between James II and William III, Dublin city wasunder Jacobite control under the so-called ‘patriot parliament’ in1689. A Roman Catholic priest, Alexius Stafford, was ‘intruded into theDeanery by James II and seems to have … Read more
Gone are the days when English historians ignored the question of British involvement in Ireland in the early modern period. When considered at all, the traditional narrative tended to trivialise the Irish experience and minimalise its impact on the grand sweep of English history. An example of this tendency is found in the influential England … Read more