The Stuart restoration and the English in Ireland

Abstract

This book focuses on how historical memory and political discourse affected land settlement and political processes in early Restoration Ireland. The period 1660-1667 was one of insecurity for the Protestant plantation in Ireland, as Catholic spokesmen undermined the Protestant status quo. The Stuart Restoration and the English in Ireland draws out the dynamism of the rhetorical, moral and legal challenges that Catholics made to Protestant power in Ireland and examines the Protestant responses and the rise of a Protestant identity inextricably linked with the possession of power. This identity was expressed as that of the 'English in Ireland', a belligerent self-denomination which did little to accommodate the king or the importance of monarchy to the Protestant position in the country. Crossing boundaries of political, intellectual and cultural history, the book highlights the complexity of political culture in Restoration Ireland, which was defined by the intersection of political language, ideas, historical understandings and economic imperatives.