Anniversaries invite us to explore ‘who we are’. In fact, they usually tell us a great deal more about those who commemorate than about what is commemorated. The year 2007 was a case in point. The planting of Jamestown and the Flight of the Earls transformed America, Ireland and England. Each of these events is … Read more
The archives An estimated 370 manuscript maps of Ulster survive, dating from roughly 1567 through to 1636, in fifteen repositories throughout Britain and Ireland. In Britain these include the National Archives, the British Library, the National Maritime Museum, the Guildhall Library, Drapers’ Hall, Goldsmiths’ Hall and Lambeth Palace Library (all in London); Longleat House, Wiltshire; … Read more
The Ulster Plantation was a complex system of double resettlement: from Britain to Ireland and from Ireland towards the Continent (an estimated 100,000 in the first half of the seventeenth century). Roughly half of these Irish migrants ended up settling in territories controlled by the Spanish Habsburgs, achieving remarkable success and acceptance, although many more … Read more
The establishment of a Diocesan Library and the Diocesan Free School were intended to provide the diocese of Derry with a seat of learning. Established in 1617, shortly after the appointment of George Downham as bishopand following the visit to Derry of two assistants of the Irish Society, George Smithies and Matthias Springham, the latter decided … Read more
The State has always been quick to enlist schools as agents of public policy, not least in Ireland, both pre- and post-independence. This was particularly so at the time of the Reformation, when Tudor legislation sought to establish a system of parish elementary schools and diocesan grammar schools throughout the land. These ambitious schemes, whereby … Read more