Oliver Cromwell spent only nine months in Ireland but few men’s footprints have been so deeply imprinted upon Irish history and historiography. This theme was explored by a number of invited lecturers at the fifth annual symposium of the Old Drogheda Society on 12 September 1999 in the Boyne Valley Hotel. The chairman of the … Read more
He started life as an illiterate barrow-boy and died a viscount, having taken three wives on the way. This is the incredible story of Matthew Barnewall. ‘Never without an idiot or a lawsuit’ The Barnewalls were Normans, and took their name from the small sea-side town of Berneval le Grand sur Mer, a little way … Read more
The historian William Camden, writing in Britaine (1610) described the lord deputy’s authority as ‘very large, ample and royal. And verily there is not (look throughout all Christendom againe) any other vice-roy that commeth nearer the majesty of a king, whether you respect his jurisdiction or authority or his traine, furniture and provision’. The travel-writer … Read more
One of the major differences between viceroys and those they represent is the length of time they govern. The average, uninterrupted term in office for Elizabeth I’s governors in Ireland was approximately eighteen-and-a-half months. There were, of course, wide variations between one governor and another. Sir William Fitzwilliam, who ran Ireland from June 1588 to … Read more
The Catholic priesthood can be seen as exemplifying ‘traditional’ leadership where authority derives from a social role irrespective of the individual involved; but there have always been priests who developed a more individualistic approach, even if this precipitated conflict with church or state authorities. These essays describe nine Irish Catholic priests, each marked out by … Read more