Description
Book SynopsisA reassessment of one of the most devastating episodes in Irish history.WINNER of the NUI Publications Prize in Irish History 2013. Mid-seventeenth century Ireland experienced a revolution in landholding. Coming in the aftermath of the devastating Cromwellian conquest, this seismic shift in the social and ethnic distribution of land and power from Irish Catholic to English Protestant hands would play a major role in shaping the history of the country. One of the most notorious elements of the Irish land settlement wasthe scheme of the transplantation to Connacht, which aimed to expel the Catholic population from three of the country's four provinces and replace them with a wave of Protestant settlers from England and further afield. Brought to the forefront of attention by nationalist scholars in the nineteenth century, the transplantation is one of the best-known but conversely least understood episodes in Irish history. Yet it has been relatively neglected by recenthistorians, a gap in the scholarship which this book remedies. It situates the origins of the transplantation in the heat of conquest, reconstructs its implementation in the turbulent 1650s and explores its far-reaching outcomes.It thus enables the significance of the transplantation, and its relevance to wider themes such as colonialism, state formation and ethnic cleansing, to be better understood. John Cunningham is IRCHSS Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Mobility Fellow in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Trinity College Dublin/Albert-Ludswigs-Universität Freiburg.
Trade ReviewAn important study of a hitherto neglected area of Irish history [and] by far the most comprehensive analysis of the transplantation land settlement to date. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
A model of meticulous research and concision, [this] work also revises the received view of the transplantation in several significant respects. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *
Much that is new and interesting comes out of this book. [It] has taken important steps into understanding the 17th century revolution-from-above that landed on Ireland and will be a valuable guide to future research. * THE IRISH STORY *
[T]he volume is empirically rich and a valuable resource for scholars interested in modern Irish history as well as those interested in global transplantations. * E-KELTOI *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Conquest and land in Cromwellian Ireland, 1649-1652 Towards plantation and transplantation, 1652-1654 The land settlement under threat, 1653-1655 Enforcing transplantation, 1655-1659 Transplantation in County Roscommon The transplanters and the Restoration land settlement Conclusion Bibliography
