Early Modern History (1500–1700)

No God and two St Patricks: the national day and the national saint

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/history2013/20130507-HistoryIrelandShow-018-NoGodAndTwoStPatricks.mp3″] Click the Play button to listen To download file, right click this link and select “Save link as..” ‘Master’ Tommy Graham conducts a History Ireland Hedge School at the National Library of Ireland on 15 March 2011. With Tommy are Elva Johnston (UCD), Canon Adrian Empey (Church of Ireland Theological College), Mike Cronin … Read more

From Jacobitism to Jacobinism: a reconsideration

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/history2013/20130425-HistoryIrelandShow-007-FromJacobitismToJacobinismAReconsideration.mp3″] Click the Play button to listen To download file, right click this link and select “Save link as..” with Billy Kelly, Éamonn Ó Cíardha, Richard Doherty and Hiram Morgan. 21 July 2012 at the Battle of Aughrim Interpretative Centre, Aughrim, Co. Galway.  

The harp that once on Ireland’s coins

It is supposed that Pope Leo X gave a harp or cláirseach to Henry VIII at the same period as Fidei Defensor during that honeyed pre-Reformation period. The symbol was distinctive enough to separate the Irish coinage from passing into English currency. Sometimes the harp came between Henry and three of his wives, placing the … Read more

The Old Countess, the Geraldine knight and the lady antiquarian: a conspiracy theory revisited

In the nineteenth century, Katherine Fitzgerald, the ‘Old’ Countess of Desmond, was one of the most familiar characters from early modern Ireland. Her story was romantic and remarkable. Assumed to have been born in the 1460s, in Dromana, Co. Waterford, she had, so legend went, married in Edward IV’s reign, and had even danced at … Read more

Richard Cantillon —the father of economics

Kerryman Richard Cantillon was born in the 1680s to a Hiberno-Norman landowning family from Ballyheigue. The family fought alongside James II, to whom they were related, during the Williamite War and were consequently dispossessed of their lands. Nevertheless, Cantillon’s landed gentry origins were to leave a lasting impression on his work, and his experiences in … Read more