Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The literature of medieval Ireland to c. 800: St Patrick to the Vikings
- 2 The literature of medieval Ireland, 800–1200: from the Vikings to the Normans
- 3 The literature of later medieval Ireland, 1200–1600: from the Normans to the Tudors
- 4 Literature in English, 1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 5 Literature in Irish, c.1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 6 Prose in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 7 Poetry in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 8 Literature in Irish, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 9 Theatre in Ireland, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 10 Irish Romanticism, 1800–1830
- 11 Prose writing and drama in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 12 Poetry in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 13 Literature in Irish, 1800–1890: from the Act of Union to the Gaelic League
- 14 Historical writings, 1690–1890
- 15 Literature and the oral tradition
- Guide to major subject areas
- Index
- References
14 - Historical writings, 1690–1890
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The literature of medieval Ireland to c. 800: St Patrick to the Vikings
- 2 The literature of medieval Ireland, 800–1200: from the Vikings to the Normans
- 3 The literature of later medieval Ireland, 1200–1600: from the Normans to the Tudors
- 4 Literature in English, 1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 5 Literature in Irish, c.1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 6 Prose in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 7 Poetry in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 8 Literature in Irish, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 9 Theatre in Ireland, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 10 Irish Romanticism, 1800–1830
- 11 Prose writing and drama in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 12 Poetry in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 13 Literature in Irish, 1800–1890: from the Act of Union to the Gaelic League
- 14 Historical writings, 1690–1890
- 15 Literature and the oral tradition
- Guide to major subject areas
- Index
- References
Summary
There is general agreement among historians that 1690 marked a watershed in Irish history in general, but no such decisive break can be seen in historical writing. Many of the same themes and debates continued, notably over the nature of pre-colonial Gaelic society. These were sharpened by the incorporation of the wars and rebellions of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries into the available narrative, as evidence in support of the English colonial diagnosis of Edmund Spenser and Sir John Davies that the conquest had been imperfectly carried out and that consequently the native Irish remained fundamentally untouched by the civilising process. Oliver MacDonagh’s argument that early nineteenth-century historical writing lacked a ‘developmental or sequential view of past events’, and thus treated the past ahistorically as ‘an arsenal of weapons’ with which to fight contemporary political battles, can equally be applied to previous centuries. This also produced a habit of interpreting historical events and actions as if they were contemporary: ‘In such a view, no statute of limitations softens the judgement to be made upon past events, however distant [and] no prescriptive rights can be established by the passage of time, however lengthy.’ This concept of history as, in some ways, contemporaneous is to be found in almost all the texts discussed below.
Seventeenth-century legacies
The most prominent histories published in the immediate aftermath of the Williamite success came from the victors’ camp. They were characterised by a noticeable sense of history as an unfinished, still-unfolding process which incorporated the present in all its uncertainties. The pattern was established, when the out come of the Williamite wars was still unclear, in Hibernia Anglicana (1689–90) by Richard Cox (1650–1733).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Irish Literature , pp. 599 - 632Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
, ‘Charles Vallancey and the Map of Ireland’, Geographical Journal 132 (1966);CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, A Paper Landscape: The Ordnance Survey in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (1975; Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002).Google Scholar
Annála Ríoghachta Éireann: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to 1616, ed. and trans. , 7 vols. (1848–51; reprinted Dublin: De Burca, 1990).Google Scholar
, ‘The Uses of 23 October 1641 and Irish Protestant Celebrations’, English Historical Review 106 (1991).Google Scholar
, ‘1641: A Bibliographical Essay’, in , ed. Ulster 1641: Aspects of the Rising (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1993).Google Scholar
, ‘James Anthony Froude (1818–1894), Moral Obligation, and the Uses of Irish History’, in and , eds. Taking Sides? Colonial and Confessional Mentalités in Early Modern Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003).Google Scholar
, A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland (London: W. Strahan & D. Cadell, 1777);Google Scholar
, Strictures on the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Ireland (Dublin: Luke White, 1789).Google Scholar
, An Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to the Settlement under King William, 2 vols. (1775; 2nd edn, Dublin: Luke White, 1786), I.Google Scholar
, An Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland (1775; Dublin: R. Connolly, 1810).Google Scholar
, An Illustrated History of Ireland (2nd edn, 1868; reprinted London: Bracken Books, 1995).Google Scholar
, Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing since 1790 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).Google Scholar
, ‘Foreword’ in , Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland, from the Arrival of the English: also a particular detail of that which broke out the 23rd of May, 1798; with a History of the Conspiracy which preceded it (1801; 4th edn, Fort Wayne, IN: Round Tower Books, 1995);Google Scholar
, ‘James Ussher and the Creation of an Irish Protestant Identity’, in and , eds. British Consciousness and Identity: The Making of Britain, 1533–1707 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
, The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland, London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 2001.Google Scholar
, ‘Preface’ to , Ireland in the Seventeenth Century, or, the Irish Massacres of 1641–2, their Causes and Results, 2 vols. (London: Longmans, Green, 1884), I.Google Scholar
, The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 3 vols. (London: Longmans, Green, 1872–4), I.Google Scholar
, ‘A Jacobite History: The Abbé MacGeoghegan’s History of Ireland ’, Eighteenth-Century Ireland 6 (1991).Google Scholar
, The History of the City and County of Galway (1820; reprinted Galway: Connacht Tribune, 1985).Google Scholar
, History of the Insurrection of the County of Wexford (Dublin: n.p., 1803). Hay also wrote a pamphlet attacking Musgrave (Authentic Detail of the Extravagant and Inconsistent Conduct of Sir Richard Musgrave (?Dublin: n.p., ?1803)).Google Scholar
, ‘Popery and Protestantism, Civil and Religious Liberty: The Disputed Lessons of Irish History 1690–1812’, Past & Present 118 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, A Defence of the Antient Historians, with a particular application of it to the History of Ireland and Great Britain, and other Northern Nations (Dublin: John Smith and William Bruce, 1734).Google Scholar
, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism: The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish Nation State, London: Allen & Unwin, 1987.Google Scholar
, British Identities before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The State of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James’ Government (London: Robert Clavell, 1691).Google Scholar
, An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, 4 vols. (Dublin: D. Graisberry, 1822), I, title page.Google Scholar
, A Compendium of the History of Ireland from the earliest period to the reign of George I, 2 vols. (1813; Edinburgh: Michael Anderson, 1823), I.Google Scholar
, A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 5 vols. (London: Longmans, Green, 1892), I.Google Scholar
, ‘An Essay on the Study of Irish Antiquities’, in , Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, II (Dublin: Luke White, 1781)Google Scholar
, ‘Antiquarian Research: Patriotism to Nationalism’, in and , eds. Talamh an Éisc: Canadian and Irish Essays (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus, 1986).Google Scholar
, Mere Irish and Fíor-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, its Development and Literary Expression prior to the Nineteenth Century (first published 1986; Cork: Cork University Press, 1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century (Cork: Cork University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
, The History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II with a Preliminary Discourse on the Antient State of that Kingdom, 3 vols. (1773; Dublin: Brett Smith, 1814), I.Google Scholar
, ‘Testing the Depth of Catholic/Protestant Conflict: The Case of Thomas Leland’s History of Ireland, 1773’, Archivium Hibernicum 42 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern, trans. (Dublin: J. Duffy, 1849). See also , ‘“The Island of Saints and Scholars”: Views of the Early Church and Sectarian Politics in Late-Eighteenth Century Ireland’, Eighteenth-Century Ireland 5 (1990).Google Scholar
, ‘“A Land of Milk and Honey”: The Physico-Historical Society, Improvement and the Surveys of Mid-Eighteenth Century Ireland’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 102c, 6 (2002).Google Scholar
, ‘James Anthony Froude and Ireland: A Historiographical Controversy of the Nineteenth Century’, in , ed. Historical Studies VIII (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1971).Google Scholar
, ‘Lecky’s Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland’, Irish Historical Studies 14 (1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The History of Ireland from the Treaty of Limerick to the Present Time (Glasgow: Cameron, Ferguson, 1868)Google Scholar
, The Case of Ireland being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated (1698; Dublin: Cadenus Press, 1977).Google Scholar
, Romanticism, Nationalism and Irish Antiquarian Societies, 1840–80 (Maynooth: National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 2000).Google Scholar
, ‘The Defence of the Southern Part of Ireland by General Vallancey, Chief Engineer’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 125 (1995).Google Scholar
, ‘Gilbert and the Public Record Office of Ireland’, in , and , eds. Sir John T. Gilbert, 1829–98: Historian, Archivist and Librarian (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999).Google Scholar
, Advertisement (1795), bound with a copy of Memoirs of the Life and Work of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (Dublin: J. Mehain, 1796) in National Library of Ireland, Dublin, catalogue no. J92 o; Walker to Revd Charles O’Conor, 24 August 1795, Ms. OCD 8.4.HL.146, Clonalis House, County Roscommon.Google Scholar
, Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, 4 vols. (Buckingham: J. Seeley and T. Payne, 1814–26);Google Scholar
, The History of the Irish Catholics from the Settlement in 1691 (Dublin: J. Stockdale, 1813).Google Scholar
, Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History (Dublin: J. Duffy, 1861).Google Scholar
, On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, 3 vols. (1873; facsimile edn, Dublin: Edmund Burke, 1996), II.Google Scholar
[James], History of Ireland, 2 vols. (London: Sampson Low, Searle, Marston and Rivington, 1878–80), I.Google Scholar
, Golden Ages and Barbarous Ages: Antiquarian Debate and Cultural Politics in Ireland c.1750–1800 (Cork: Cork University Press, 2004), chapter 2.Google Scholar
, ‘Irish Re-creations of the Gaelic Past: The Challenge of Macpherson’s Ossian’, Past & Present 124 (1989).Google Scholar
, An Introduction to the Study of the History and Antiquities of Ireland (London: J. Murray, 1772).Google Scholar
, Golden Ages and Barbarous Nations: Antiquarian Debate and Cultural Politics in Ireland, c.1750–1800, Cork: Cork University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion; comprising an Essay on the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, which obtained the gold medal and prize of the Royal Irish Academy (2nd edn 1845; reprinted Shannon: Irish University Press, 1970), viii.Google Scholar
, Ireland from the Restoration to the Revolution, 1660–1690 (London: Longmans, Green, 1887).Google Scholar
, The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1865).Google Scholar
Prince of Dublin Printers: The Letters of George Faulkner, ed. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1972) and The Letters of Charles O’ Conor of Belanagare, ed. and , 2 vols. (Ann Arbor, MI: Irish American Cultural Institute/University Microfilms, 1980).Google Scholar
, From Jacobite to Conservative: Reaction and Orthodoxy in Britain, c.1760–1832 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
, The Rediscovery of Ireland’s Past: The Celtic Revival, 1830–1930, London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.Google Scholar
, The Irish Rebellion: or, an History of the Beginnings and first Progresse of the General Rebellion raised within the Kingdom of Ireland, upon the three and twentieth day of October, in the year, 1641. Together with the Barbarous Cruelties and Bloody Massacres which ensued thereupon (London: Samuel Gillibrand, 1646).Google Scholar
, The Antient and Present State of the County and City of Waterford (Dublin: A. Reilly, 1746);Google Scholar
, An Impartial History of Ireland, from the period of the English Invasion to the year 1810, 4 vols. (Dublin: J. Christie, 1809–11), I.Google Scholar
, Aryans and British India (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, A Vindication of the Ancient History of Ireland (Dublin: Luke White, 1786), reprinted in , ed. Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis IV (Dublin: Luke White, 1786).Google Scholar
, An Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language. Being a Collation of Irish with the Punic Language (Dublin: S. Powell, 1772).Google Scholar
, Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, 2 vols. (1786; 2nd edn, Dublin: J. Christie, 1818), I.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by