In the wake of the 1798 rebellion a wave of agrarian agitation swept Munster. Superficially the disaffection—centred on the counties of Limerick, Cork and Tipperary, although there were incidents throughout the province—seemed to be the latest manifestation of the long-term phenomenon of ‘Whiteboyism’. This generic term denotes the activities of the agrarian secret societies that … Read more
Oliver Plunkett is unquestionably one of the best-known churchmen in Irish history. Of Old English stock from Meath, he left Ireland during the chaos of the 1640s to be educated in Rome, eventually returning to Ireland as archbishop of Armagh. An energetic and gifted (if contentious) reformer, he was arrested in December 1679 and executed … Read more
‘Itinerants first went on the road due to extreme poverty in Ireland. Unlike British or European gypsies the itinerants are the product not of an ancient, highly cultured race with its own folklore and culture but of the immiseration of a section of the ordinary, illiterate peasantry in Ireland . . . Itinerants went and … Read more
‘Itinerants first went on the road due to extreme poverty in Ireland. Unlike British or European gypsies the itinerants are the product not of an ancient, highly cultured race with its own folklore and culture but of the immiseration of a section of the ordinary, illiterate peasantry in Ireland . . . Itinerants went and … Read more
‘Just when we thought it was safe…’ In this issue’s interview (p. 43) Senator Martin Mansergh makes the observation that Irish historiography has gone through a Hegelian dialectical process of thesis (traditional nationalist), antithesis (revisionist) and synthesis (post-revisionist), an observation with which most with an interest in Irish history would concur. Few of us … Read more