The Cambridge History of Ireland: Volume 2, 1550–1730 1550 - 1730

This volume offers fresh perspectives on the political, military, religious, social, cultural, intellectual, economic, and environmental history of early modern Ireland and situates these discussions in global and comparative contexts. The opening chapters focus on 'Politics' and 'Religion and War' and offer a chronological narrative, informed by the re-interpretation of new archives. The remaining chapters are more thematic, with chapters on 'Society', 'Culture', and 'Economy and Environment', and often respond to wider methodologies and historiographical debates. Interdisciplinary cross-pollination - between, on the one hand, history and, on the other, disciplines like anthropology, archaeology, geography, computer science, literature and gender and environmental studies - informs many of the chapters. The volume offers a range of new departures by a generation of scholars who explain in a refreshing and accessible manner how and why people acted as they did in the transformative and tumultuous years between 1550 and 1730.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Ireland in the early modern world Jane Ohlmeyer; Part II. Politics: 2. Politics, policy and power, 1550–1603 Ciaran Brady; 3. Political change and social transformation, 1603–1641 David Edwards; 4. Politics, 1641–1660 John Cunningham; 5. Restoration politics, 1660–1691 Ted McCormack; 6. Politics, 1692–1730 Charles Ivar McGrath; 7. The emergence of a protestant society, 1691–1730 D. W. Hayton; Part III. Religion and War: 8. Counter reformation: the Catholic Church, 1550–1641 Tadhg Ó Hannracháin; 9. Protestant reformations, 1550–1641 Colm Lennon; 10. Establishing a confessional Ireland, 1641–1691 Robert Armstrong; 11. Wars of religion, 1641–1691 John Jeremiah Cronin and Pádraig Lenihan; Part IV. Society: 12. Society, 1550–1730 Clodagh Tait; 13. Men, women, children and the family, 1550–1730 Mary O'Dowd; 14. Domestic materiality in Ireland, 1550–1730 Susan Flavin; 15. Irish art and architecture, 1550–1730 Jane Fenlon; 16. Ireland in the Atlantic world: migration and cultural transfer William O'Reilly; Part V. Culture: 17. Language, print and literature in Irish, 1550–1630 Marc Caball; 18. Language, literature and print in Irish, 1630–1730 Bernadette Cunningham; 19. The emergence of English print and literature, 1630–1730 Deana Rankin; 20. A world of honour: aristocratic mentalité Brendan Kane; 21. Irish political thought and intellectual history, 1550–1730 Ian Campbell; Part VI. Economy and Environment: 22. Economic life, 1550–1730 Raymond Gillespie; 23. Plantations, 1550–1641 Annaleigh Margery; 24. The down survey and the Cromwellian land settlement Micheál Ó Siochrú and David Brown; 25. Environmental history of Ireland, 1550–1730 Frank Ludlow and Arlene Crampsie; Part VII. Afterword: 26. Interpreting the history of early modern Ireland: from the sixteenth century to the present Nicholas Canny.

Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin and the Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity's research institute for advanced study in the Arts and Humanities. Since September 2015 she has also served as Chair of the Irish Research Council. She has also taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Yale University, Connecticut, and the University of Aberdeen and has held several visiting international appointments. A passionate teacher and an internationally established scholar of early modern Irish history, Professor Ohlmeyer is the author/editor of eleven books, including Making Ireland English: The Aristocracy in Seventeenth-Century Ireland (2012). She is currently working on a study of Colonial Ireland, Colonial India and preparing an edition of Clarendon's Shorte View of Ireland. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Thomas Bartlett was born in Belfast, and is a graduate of Queen's University Belfast. He has held positions at the National University of Ireland, Galway, then as Professor of Modern Irish history at University College Dublin, and most recently as Professor of Irish history at the University of Aberdeen, until his retirement in 2014. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and his previous publications include Ireland: A History (Cambridge, 2010).