In this book leading historians challenge traditional views about the British conquest and colonization of Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They reveal the contradictions, disappointments and failures, which attended the efforts of English and Scottish colonists. Notably, the British became increasingly aware of the need not to destroy the resources they originally sought to exploit.

In this book leading historians challenge traditional views about the British conquest and colonization of Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They reveal the contradictions, disappointments and failures, which attended the efforts of English and Scottish colonists. Notably, the British became increasingly aware of the need not to destroy the resources they originally sought to exploit.

The 1641 rebellion is one of the seminal events in early modern Irish and British history. Its divisive legacy, based primarily on the sharply contested allegation that the rebellion began with a general massacre of Protestant settlers, is still evident in Ireland today. Thousands of witness testimonies (the 1641 Depositions) housed in Trinity College Dublin became central to one of the most protracted and bitter of Irish historical controversies. This controversy has never been satisfactorily resolved as successive generations invented and re-invented the past in response to contemporary...

Offers fresh perspectives on the political, military, religious, social, cultural, intellectual, economic, and environmental history of early modern Ireland.

This authoritative and engaging four-volume history vividly presents the Irish story - or stories - from c.600 to the present.

This groundbreaking book provides the first comprehensive study of the re-making of Ireland's aristocracy during the seventeenth century.