England and the 1641 Irish Rebellion

This short book packs quite a punch. Once we exclude the bibliography and index, there are only 164 pages of text, twenty of which are taken up with an unnecessarily general discussion of the ‘New British History’. But the rest is at once pithy and resonant. It has two stories to tell, both of which are striking and startling. The first, based mainly but not exclusively on a very close and attentive reading of some of the thousands of depositions made by survivors of the rebellion and massacres that spread outwards from west and mid-Ulster on and after the night of 22–23 October 1641, reveals the survival strategies of those who lost all their possessions, and often their men-folk, and who were driven naked out into the bitter winter cold. It is probable that for every British Protestant killed by an act of violence, there were two or more who died of exposure. But how did so many survive? Cope demonstrates that many Protestants could turn not only to fellow-settlers in strongholds for at least temporary shelter; but a significant number could turn to Catholic relatives or neigbours. Even some Old English Catholics, notably the 9th Lord Dunsany, used their social power and their sense of long-term political realism, to grant safe passage and protection to fleeing settlers. There are some extraordinary vignettes, including a rewriting of the infamous incident when Protestants were thrown off a bridge at Belturbat in Cavan

Genealogy · Irish · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Protestantism · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Philosophy · Scottish History and National Identity