The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History


Book Description

Draws from a wide range of disciplines to bring together 36 leading scholars writing about 400 years of modern Irish history
















The Irish Parliament in the Eighteenth Century


Book Description

Published to mark the two hundreth anniversary of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland, which took effect on 1 January 1801, this collection of essays explores the history of the independent Irish parliament which the Act of Union extinguished; a subject of interest not just to students of Irish history, but also in its European context as an unusually successful example of a provincial representative institution in a composite monarchy. Traditionally, Irish historians have been interested in the history of the Dublin parliament as an arena for high-political conflict or as a forum for the development and expression of Anglo-Irish patriot ideology. By contrast, this volume looks at parliament as an institution, the role of the house of commons in the collection an expenditure of public money, and the recording of proceedings and debates.




Poynings' Law and the Making of Law in Ireland, 1660-1800


Book Description

Poynings' Law (1494) was one of the most crucial statutes ever enacted by the Irish parliament, yet the law's crucial impact on parliament's operations from 1660 has never been examined systematically. James Kelly examines how Poynings' Law impacted on the legislative operations of the Irish parliament between the Restoration and the Act of Union, and he establishes how the Irish parliament contrived, first, by evolving a sophisticated heads of bills process in the late 17th century, second, by curtailing the power of the Irish privy council in the early 18th century, and finally, by securing the amendment of Poynings' Law in 1782, to achieve a degree of legislative independence that endured until the Act of Union. Based on a close and detailed scrutiny of the records of the Irish parliament and the systematic exploration for the first time of the voluminous records of the British privy council, this book provides a new, revealing perspective on the working of the Irish parliament, its relationship with the Irish executive and on the nature of the Anglo-Irish connection. (Series: Irish Legal History Society)




The Cambridge History of Ireland: Volume 3, 1730–1880


Book Description

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was an era of continuity as well as change. Though properly portrayed as the era of 'Protestant Ascendancy' it embraces two phases - the eighteenth century when that ascendancy was at its peak; and the nineteenth century when the Protestant elite sustained a determined rear-guard defence in the face of the emergence of modern Catholic nationalism. Employing a chronology that is not bound by traditional datelines, this volume moves beyond the familiar political narrative to engage with the economy, society, population, emigration, religion, language, state formation, culture, art and architecture, and the Irish abroad. It provides new and original interpretations of a critical phase in the emergence of a modern Ireland that, while focused firmly on the island and its traditions, moves beyond the nationalist narrative of the twentieth century to provide a history of late early modern Ireland for the twenty-first century.







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