The Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms / Eamon Darcy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Darcy, Eamon.

Series:

Royal Historical Society studies in history. New series ; v. 86.

Royal Historical Society studies in history new series, 0269-2244 ; v. 86

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ireland--History--Rebellion of 1641.

Ireland.

History.

Great Britain--Politics and government--1625-1649.

Great Britain.

Politics and government.

Great Britain--History--Civil War, 1642-1649.

Physical Description:

xiii, 212 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Woodbridge : Royal Historical Society/Boydell Press, 2013.

Summary:

After an evening spent drinking in a tavern with Irish conspirators, an inebriated Owen Connelly confessed to the lords justices, the main colonial administrators in Ireland, that a plot was afoot to root out and destroy Ireland's English and Protestant population. Within days English colonists in Ireland believed that a widespread massacre of Protestant settlers had taken place. Desperate for aid they began to canvass their coreligionists in England for help. They claimed that they were surrounded by an evil popish menace hell-bent on destroying their community. Soon sworn statements, later known as the 1641 depositions, confirmed their fears, despite little by way of eye-witness testimony. In later years, Protestant commentators could point to the 1641 rebellion as proof of Catholic barbarity and perfidy. Despite the (in some cases) outrageous claims made in the depositions, the myth of 1641 became more important than the reality, as this book skilfully shows. The purpose of The Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms is to understand how the English administration in Ireland portrayed the Irish rebellion to the wider world and to ask whether their claims were justified. An obvious, if overlooked, context is that of the Atlantic world. Did English colonists draw upon similar cultural frameworks to describe atrocities in the Americas? How did this shape the portrayal of the 1641 rebellion in contemporary pamphlets? What effect did this have on the wider War of the Three Kingdoms, if any? This is a book that will be read by those interested in the 1641 rebellion, the wider crisis of the Three Kingdoms in the seventeenth century, violence, and representations of violence, war and conflict. Book jacket.

Contents:

Representing violence and empire : Ireland and the wider world

Imagined violence? : the outbreak of the 1641 rebellion in Ireland

Manufacturing massacre : the 1641 depositions and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The 1641 rebellion and violence in the new and old worlds

Contesting the 1641 rebellion

Conclusion : the 1641 rebellion in its British, European and Atlantic world context.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-201) and index.

ISBN:

9780861933204

0861933206

OCLC:

810119750