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The Suppression of the Irish Presidency System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Liam Irwin*
Affiliation:
Mary Immaculate College of Education, Limerick

Extract

The suppression of the Irish provincial presidencies in August 1672 has received scant attention from historians. Scarcity of surviving source material has resulted in little serious scholarship being devoted to this particular form of regional government. This basic handicap was intensified by the circumstances of the decision to terminate the system. No serious abuses existed in its operation and no demand for its removal was evident yet the decision was implemented without official explanation. As a result most writers on restoration Ireland have confined themselves to brief and guarded generalisations when dealing with the subject.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1980

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References

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62 For the value and relevance of the Munster presidency after 1660, see, Irwin, L., ‘The presidency and the economic development of Munster’ in (Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., lxxzii, no. 236 (1977), pp 102–14Google Scholar; ‘The earl of Orrery and the military problems of restoration Munster’ in Ir Sword, xiii, no. 50 (summer, 1977), pp 10–19; ‘The Irish presidency courts, 1569–1672’ in Ir. Jurist, xii, n.s. (1977), pp 106–14.