Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1727 Paperback - 2008 - 1st Edition

From the rear cover

"'...either they or we must be ruined' "concluded Archbishop William King of Protestant Catholic relations in Ireland. And this, argues Padraig Lenihan, was the default state of relations between the two communities throughout the 17th century.

This groundbreaking and controversial new study tells the story of two nations in Ireland; an Irish Catholic nation and a Protestant nation, emerging from a blood-stained century. This survey confronts the violence and enmity inherent in the consolidation of conquest. This was the age of:

- Cromwell's conquest and post-war settlement.

- the economic and parliamentary foundations of Protestant ascendancy.

If the project of creating a common Irish national identity, embracing Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter was for the most part a failure, and divisions between 'native' and 'newcomer' froze into permanence, then the explanation must be sought in the catastrophic seventeenth-century. "Consolidating Conquest" shows how this failure has left a legacy of contending histories which offer material for latter day triumphalism and victimhood. For any student wishing to understand Ireland's troubled past and complex present, this book is essential reading.

Padraig Lenihan lectures in history at the University of Limerick. His recent publications include, "Conquest and Resistance: War in 17th Century Ireland" (2001) and "1690 the Battle of the Boyne" (2003).""