Nine Years War (1594-1603) Research Papers (original) (raw)

2025, Ulster Journal of Archaeology

Ordnance Survey cut benchmarks are described from the walls of Derry. They occur on the outside and the inside of the walls, and on the parapets of the walkway. These small-scale features were important physical and temporal markers in the map-making process prior to the acquisition of digital elevation data. Given their historical significance, conserving the benchmarks should be a priority in management and maintenance of the walls.

2025, IJASS JOURNAL

This paper reflects on Brian Friel’s purposeful reshaping of the history and exile of Hugh O’Neill, the 2nd Earl of Tyrone who led an uprising against the English from 1595 to 1603, with the intention of disclosing the ambiguity of his political life in Ireland. Since O’Neill had collaborated with the English crown before he became the leader of this insurgence, Friel reflects on the complex strategies adopted by this Irish hero to maintain his political power while fighting the colonizers. Having premiered at the time of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the play “Making History” explores the delicate theme of exile and the permanent consequences it has on those forced to die far from their homeland. We argue that O’Neill’s behavior in the play places him both as colonized and colonizer, allowing this dramaturgical work to reach both Irish/ Catholic as well as British/Protestant audiences

2024, Ireland and the Iberian Atlantic: Migration, military and material culture

Spaniards came to Erinn [Ireland], a very great fleet; and eight or nine of those ships were wrecked in Mumha [Munster] and Connacht; and Saxons [English] killed all who were not drowned of the crews of those ships that were wrecked; and it is not possible to reckon or tell all that were drowned, and all that were slain in that fleet, on account of their number, and the quantity of the spoils got, of gold and silver, and of every kind of treasure besides.' 1

2024, Tudor Times

One of the most lauded eras of English history is the Elizabethan period. The long reign of ‘Good Queen Bess’ is seen as a ‘golden age’. So it may come as an uncomfortable surprise when their Irish neighbours look on with some bewilderment, and maybe propose a counterpoint to the lauding of Gloriana and her golden age. Golden? Golden for whom? Certainly not the Irish.

2024, "El desaparecido convento de San Francisco de Valladolid: arquitectura, georradar y unos singulares sepultados" / "The disappeared Friary of Saint Francis, Valladolid: Architecture, Georadar and Unique Buried Bodies."

In 1506, the explorer Christopher Columbus was buried in the Franciscan Friary of St. Francis, Valladolid in Spain. He was laid to rest in a chapel which was, at the same time, the chapter house of the friary and opened onto the main... more

2024, Senior Honors Projects

There are few periods in the history of any nation as tumultuous as the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries in Ireland. The following paper examines the social and religious upheavals of this period and identifies an emergent national identity among 'Gaelic Irish' and 'Anglo-Irish' Catholics. Although English forces defeated the Irish 'rebels' in the two major military conflicts of the period, the Desmond Rebellion (1579-84) and the Nine Years' War (1595-1603), the means employed by England to achieve victory, cultural continuity among the Irish (and Gaelicised English), as well as the conflict over religion throughout Europe ensured that Ireland would remain a point of resistance to colonialism and the reformation. The pages below question the historical orthodoxy surrounding the 'Elizabethan conquest' and explore Ireland during those years in terms of a nation being created rather than destroyed.

2024

The earliest extant regional map covering Carrickfergus, its environs and the sea-inlet which later came to be known as Belfast Lough, is held in the National Archives at Kew, reference MPF 1/77. It shows Carrickfergus and the lough,... more

2024, Renaissance Quarterly

that is new, while the chapter on "Art and Society" is very dense. There is (unintended?) humor in the title of the chapter on "The Scandinavian Intervention" (better known to the world as the Viking invasions). The chapter on "Perception and Reality: Ireland c. 980-1229" is, in fact, a study of kingship as reflected in the native Irish literary sources of the period. That on "Conquest and Conquerors" provides an amusing contrast between the "fellowship of arms" exercised by the chivalric conquerors and the savagery of their native opponents: "So it transpired that when in May 1170 the English won their famous victory at Dún Domnaill (Baginbun, Co. Wexford), they eschewed their own military customs and slaughtered their captives" (162). This kind of special pleading is reminiscent of the bad old days of John Horace Round and his Irish disciple, Goddard Henry Orpen. Even worse, however, is the vista offered in the chapter on "Angevin Ireland" of the same benighted conquerors who "found themselves time-travellers to an Iron Age" society (205), one obviously crying out for the civilizing hand of the English (the term Anglo-Norman has been jettisoned). But how to explain "the murder, deposition and self-slaughter that characterises English elite politics in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries?" Their origins, we are told, "might better be traced to the Curragh of Kildare" (219) than to any innate disposition among the civilized elite.

2024, The Sixteenth century journal

The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

2024, Recusant History

Frank Edwards who died on 15 September 2006 was one of the most prolific writers on Elizabethan and Jacobean history produced by the English (subsequently British) Province of the Society of Jesus since the end of the second world war. A... more

2023, Feagh McHugh O'Byrne The Wicklow Firebrand: A volume of Quatercentennial essays, Conor O'Brien (ed.)

My 1998 paper tried to explain, for the first time, the origins and development of Feagh MacHugh

2023, The English Historical Review

2023, Names

The three current theories of the origin of the name of the American state of Maine are reviewed and rejected. The connection of the colonist Sir Ferdinando Gorges with Ireland is explored, and a possible origin is proposed in the circumstances of the Anglo-Irish wars of 1594-1603 and their impact on his thoughts and motives. keywords Maine, American colonization, Irish history, Ferdinando Gorges The State of Maine has its origins in the early seventeenth century. The first European settlement was founded in 1604 on Saint Croix Island by Pierre Duguast (also known today in Canada as Du Gua), Sieur de Mon(t)s, who hailed from Royan in the Saintonge, France, and the first English settlement, Popham Colony, was established by the Plymouth Company three years later. Both failed to prosper. Other English and French coastal settlements followed over the next two decades, but they too struggled, and we do not need to trace their history here. 1 Eventually, two more English naval adventurers took an interest: on August 10 1622, the colonial pioneers Sir Ferdinando Gorges (1568-1647), 2 who had joined the Plymouth Company of Virginia in 1606 and therefore knew of the failed Popham endeavor, and Captain John Mason (1586-1635) were granted a large tract of coastal land by the Plymouth President and Council of New England, which, it was declared, they "intend[ed] to name The Province of Maine." 3 That is where we hear of the present name for the first time. 4 The following year, another English naval captain, Christopher Levett, visited the area, and opened his account by writing that "[t]he first place I set my foote vpon in New England, was the Isles of Shoulds [Shoals, RC], being Ilands in the sea, above two Leagues from the Mayne" (Levett, 1628). This might suggest either that Levett knew the place was already called The Mayne and that he was referring to it by name, or that he was simply using the word main in one of its then-current senses, namely "continental landmass." 5 As we shall see, I believe the latter was probably intended. King Charles I vigorously insisted on Maine above any other candidate name in a decree of April 3 1639 confirming the earlier grant to Gorges, 6 and this, as "The Province of Maine," finally received official blessing in 1665 when the Commissioners of King Charles II ordered that it be so entered

2023

To at least some of the crown's officers who observed it, the Tudor conquest of Ireland could evoke disturbing memories. In 1558, railing against the ravages recently inflicted by both government and rebel forces on the native civilian population, the archbishop of Armagh, a leading royal councillor, described how he had ridden 30 miles through parts of the Ulster/Leinster borderlands without seeing or hearing a sign of life. Houses were burned out, villages uninhabited, all the cornfields destroyed. Nowhere were there any people or cattle, just an eerie silence; famine reigned. 1 A generation later the poet, planter, and former Vice-regal Secretary Edmund Spenser recalled the dire effects of military campaigning in large parts of Munster during the Desmond war (1579-83). 'In short space', he wrote, 'there were none [people or animals] almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void'. 2 The climax of the Tudor conquest produced similar testimonies of famine and desolation. Having accompanied his master Viceroy Mountjoy on expeditions through all four provinces after 1600, Fynes Moryson later recorded: 'No spectacle was more frequent in the ditches of towns, and in the wasted countries, than to see multitudes of these poor people dead, their mouths all coloured green by eating nettles [and] docks.' 3 The demographic impact of the conquest was certainly terrible. Though historians lack the sources necessary for a precise calculation of the Irish population before or after the Tudor wars, it is generally agreed that it was significantly reduced by all the fighting. The conflict lasted nearly 60 years, beginning in the final months of the reign of Henry VIII, and continued until the death of his daughter, Elizabeth I. Though most of the campaigns were small and localised, they were many and persistent, so much so that between 1546 and 1603 there was not a year when government forces were not engaged in operations in some part of the country. Moreover, the major wars, against Shane O'Neill (1557-62, 1563-7), the fitzMaurice/Burke/Butler confederacy (1569-73), the earl of Desmond (1579-83), and the earl of Tyrone (1594-1603) were each bigger than the last, affecting wider and wider areas of the country. 4 Extrapolating from available figures for the Desmond war it has been estimated that the Tudor conquest may have caused as many as 100,000 casualties. 5 Given that the population of Ireland circa 1540 lay somewhere between 0.75 and 1.0 million, the conquest must rank as one of the most destructive conflicts anywhere in sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century Europe. 6 But it was not simply the scale of Irish mortality that sometimes troubled the memories of Tudor-era crown servitors and commentators. It was also the knowledge that royal forces inflicted most of the deaths. Government documents of the period are

2023, Prague Papers on the History of International Relations

The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 has been regarded primarily as an episode in English domestic politics and has rarely been considered as a European event. Since the tercentenary of the Revolution, a lot has been done to correct this picture. Now it is clear, for example, that without Prince William's powerful military intervention, which was carried out with the full support of the States General of the United Provinces, the Revolution would have been impossible. It should also be pointed out, however, that if William had succeeded in organising a powerful anti-French alliance during the early 1680s, he may not have intervened in England at the end of the decade. The timing and circumstances of William's intervention can only be understood within the context of European events, which should not be confined to Western Europe. This article seeks to explain the interrelationships between the parallel events of the 1680s in the eastern and western parts of the Continent. It a...

2023, Journal of Early Modern History

Through an exploration of overlapping concepts of noble honour amongst English and Irish elites, this book provides a cultural analysis of 'British' high politics in the early modern period. Analysing English-and Irish-language sources, Brendan Kane argues that between the establishment of the Irish kingdom under the English crown in 1541 and the Irish rebellion of 1641, honour played a powerful role in determining the character of Anglo-Irish society, politics and cultural contact. In this age, before the rise of a more bureaucratic and participatory state, political power was intensely personal and largely the concern of elites. And those elites were preoccupied with honour. By exploring contemporary 'honour politics', this book brings a cultural perspective to our understanding of the character of English imperialism in Ireland and of the Irish responses to it. In so doing it highlights understudied aspects of the origins of the 'British' state.

2023, Prague Papers on the History of International Relations

2023, 'Chapter 20. Excavations at Mountjoy Fort, Brocagh', in L. Campbell, W. Burke and W. Roulston, (eds.), Lough Neagh: An Atlas of the Natural, Built and Cultural Heritage. Belfast (Ulster Historical Foundation), 173-181

A summary of the excavation carried out In June 2018 at the site of a late-Elizabethan earthen fortification known as ‘Mountjoy Fort’, Brocagh, County Tyrone which revealed that substantial portions of the monument still survive sub-surface in the landscape. Finds included 17th century pottery, animal bone, clay tobacco pipe stems, rotary querns, a possible ceramic wig curler, brick and glass, lead pistol and caliver shot.

2023, 'Chapter 21. Tracing the past at Toome' in L. Campbell, W. Burke and W. Roulston (eds.), Lough Neagh: An Atlas of the Natural, Built and Cultural Heritage. Belfast (Ulster Historical Foundation), 182-187.

A short summary of the archaeology around Toome, County Antim, on the shores of Lough Neagh and of the excavations carried out by the author at Toome Castle in 1991 which was later published in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology.

2022, Renaissance Studies

2022

This gazetteer lists all levies of troops and ships from the city of London from 1509 to 1603, and attempts costings of each levy. It should be read in conjunction with the author's article, 'The Burden of Taxation on Sixteenth-Century London', published in The Historical Journal, 44:3 (2001), 599-627, where the methodology is more fully explained. Details given in the gazetteer include the crown's requirements, equipment, administration, and financing. It is of use to historians of the military, local government, and taxation.

2022, Bibliographica Americana Revista Interdisciplinaria De Estudios Coloniales

La representación del "yo" y de los "otros". Leonor Taiano C. Resumen: El siguiente artículo pretende estudiar la imagen estereotipada del otro en el universo colonial americano del siglo XVII, centralizándose en el marco temporal de la llamada Guerra de los Nueve Años. El análisis de esta representación se llevará a cabo por medio del texto de Jacques Raveneau de Lussan intitulado Journal du voyage fait a la mer de Sud avec les flibustiers de l'Amérique. El autor es un filibustero que recibe la protección de las autoridades francesas en las colonias americanas durante el período en que Francia era enemiga del resto de las potencias europeas. El texto corresponde a la reelaboración de su diario de viajes y tiene como motivos principales el heroísmo de los filibusteros franceses; la herejía de los ingleses; la lascivia y codicia de los españoles, el victimismo y espíritu colaborador de los indígenas y negros.

2022

In Brian Friel's Making History (1988), the author presents the process by which minority discourses are obviated and advocates the need for silenced narratives to be given a voice in retrospect. This play, based on O'Faolain's The Great O'Neill (1942), presents the events which resulted in the infamous Flight of the Earls with a dismantling of O'Neill's myth. Friel brings awareness to the erasure of the role of women in Irish history while enacting its recovery by means of the stage. Consequently, Mabel Bagenal, O'Neill's third wife, moves from a backward position to centre stage, becoming the Earl's main counsellor. Furthermore, this character, together with that of her sister, exhibits a different perspective on the colonisation of Ireland from that of the rest of the characters, due to her Protestant ascendency. History is thus disintegrated in as many histories as characters populate the play. In this manner, the writer also succeeds in mirro...

2022

2022, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies

4 provides one pragmatic and local means of addressing these problems of identity.' 13 As Stuart Sherman has argued, the 'I' who writes is unavoidably different than the 'I' who performed or experienced whatever action was reported. 14 Therefore, given that diaries are social texts and could be expected to be read, published or not, these ego-documents reproduce discourses of self that are inherently influenced by socio-cultural ideologies to produce a self-fashioned identity. This article's analysis of middle-ranking army officer manuscripts is based primarily on case studies of four men who served between 1688 and 1714. The four main characters are: Lieutenant-Colonel John Blackadder (1664-1729) of the Scottish Cameronian Regiment; 15 the Jacobite soldier and later antiquarian, John Stevens (1662-1726); 16 Captain George Carleton (1651/2?-1730?), whose military career intermittently spanned from the Third Anglo-Dutch War to the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession; 17 and Lieutenant-Colonel William Maxwell (1663-1752), a former medical student from Cardoness. 18 John Blackadder wrote from 1700-1729, ceasing less than a year before his death. Of these four he was by far the most prolific diarist, describing his service in the army, his spiritual struggles, and his discontent with military life. For most of our period, he fought in Flanders, although some of his more poignant reflections come from his time conducting army business in London and recruiting in Scotland. Despite being much shorter, John Stevens's journal is also very much a reflection of the spiritual struggles of a devoutly religious man serving during the dynastic conflicts that marred the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beginning with his journey to France to follow the fleeing King James II, Stevens's 1689-1691 journal offers the perspective of a Jacobite lieutenant during

2022, Open Military Studies

One of the most important Irish historical sources, which are the Annals of the Four Masters, written in the modern period, provide us with unusually valuable information about the history of the Emerald Island. In addition to data from the ancient or medieval periods, it also contains material from the difficult 16th and 17th centuries for Ireland, when it came under the yoke of English Protestants, who were initially represented by the Tudors and then by the Stuart dynasty. The Annals of the Four Masters also witnesses the resistance of the Irish, both those from Hiberno Normans and Gaelic Irish, to the demands of new authorities, including the rejection of Catholicism and total submission to the power of the kings of England. One such attempt, although unsuccessful, was the Kildare rebellion undertaken by Silken Thomas Earl of Kildare in the late 1630s. The laconic nature of Annales’ accounts, as well as the omission by this source of many important data, makes it an auxiliary ma...

2022, Irish Economic and Social History

2022

• Food safety is an important issue for consumers, particularly in relation to the importance of washing hands when preparing food, not consuming food that is past its sell-by date, knowing the source of meat products and concern about... more

2021, Nordic Irish Studies

2021, Renaissance Studies

John Davies, lawyer and poet, asked in 1612, 'Why Ireland was not entirely subdued until the beginning of His Majesty's happy reign?' It was a good question. The question would pop up again in 1641 and later, always with the same response. In the midst of an administrative strategy that, for all its well-meaning severity, somehow failed to protect the lives and property of many of the governed, Ireland experienced a cultural Renaissance. It has been largely neglected until recently by scholars on European history, as Thomas Herron points out in the Introduction to this lively transdisciplinary collection. The roots mostly lay elsewhere: in Italy, in France, in Germany, in Holland, and especially in Ireland's only trading partner, England, all mixed with strong elements grown in the deep loam of Irish culture. Not surprisingly, the Gaelic classicism of Peter White, author of the first book printed in Ireland, looks to Oxford, rather than to Padua or Paris, as Colm Lennon here shows. In this book, the Continental associations take a back seat, as may be expected. The earls in flight after the Nine Years War now have a bibliography all their own, and the various conspiracies-French, Spanish-await the definitive treatment. Due account is taken here (by Clare Carroll) of the diaspora of Irish scholarship in Rome, which produced a major monument in Luke Wadding's massive work on the Franciscans, a typical product of late Renaissance antiquarianism. Then there is the first Latin-Irish grammar-published, significantly, by the Congregation De Propaganda Fide. Whether Irish Catholic reform was ultimately a symptom of the Renaissance, or an obstacle, is still open to debate, mutatis mutandis, in respect to the Continental counterparts of the two movements. There is no definitive answer here. The implementation of the decrees of the Council of Trent (analysed by Salvador Ryan), breaking new ground over standards from time immemorial, necessarily encountered special conditions imposed by the persecution of Catholics. On the whole, the material discovered, re-analysed and reinterpreted by a new generation of scholars across the English-speaking community and beyond, is as fascinating as it is wide-ranging. Nor does any single historiographical thesis plainly predominate. The country's peculiarities were at best elusive even to those administrators who actually stayed long enough to make some observations; so that Sir Henry, father of Sir Philip Sidney, studied here by Willy Maley, could scarcely even recall the names of towns he had devastated during a particularly fruitful tour of duty. Not all assessments of Sidney's actions were so enthusiastic: Christopher St Lawrence, seventh baron of

2021

Battlefield or conflict archaeology is a relative newcomer to archaeology in Ireland. For many years, battlefields in Ireland were considered to contain nothing of archaeological value; they belonged to the world of the historian. Paramount amongst these is G.A. Hayes-McCoy, who could be said to have laid the foundations for all subsequent work, with his studies of Scots mercenary forces in Ireland (1937) and Irish battles (1969). Pioneering work on battles such as the Little Bighorn in 1875 in eastern Montana, USA (Scott et al. 1989) and Naseby, Northamptonshire, UK in 1645 (Foard,1995) demonstrated the potential of combining archaeological methodology with historical sources. Interest gathered pace with such spectacular discoveries as the mass grave from the battle of Towton (1461) in north Yorkshire (Fiorato et al. 2000). The ensuing programme of archaeological investigation on the site did much to refine the methodology for battlefield survey (Sutherland 2000). Since then there has been a steady increase in interest from professional and public alike, with numerous international conferences, popular television programmes and internet discussion groups (Freeman and Pollard 2001; Pollard and Oliver 2002; Scott et al. 2007; CAIRN: Conflict Archaeology International Research Network, at http://cairnworld.free.fr/index.php). The first regional authority in the British Isles to take action to protect battlefields was English Heritage, who in 1995 published the Register of Historic Battlefields. It identified over forty battle sites and provided management and conservation advice to land owners, developers and planners. In 2009, Historic Scotland decided to compile a list of Scottish ambushes on 18 January 1594 (ibid. 203). A week later, Dowdall turned his attention to Maguire's stronghold at Enniskillen. The castle of Enniskillen (SMR 211:039) stood on the strategic crossing between lower and upper Lough Erne. Its stout masonry walls were proof against the light artillery at Dowdall's disposal, but it fell on the 2 February 1594, after a nine day siege. Later that day Dowdall sent a letter to lord deputy Fitzwilliam in Dublin, describing the assault 'by boats, by engines, by sap and by scaling' (NA SP 63/173, f. 64). Alternative accounts contradict his report, such as that by Captain Thomas Lee who claimed that the garrison surrendered on terms that were later reneged upon (Morgan 1993, 155). Much later, in 1621, Don Philip O'Sullivan Beare also suggested that the ward was betrayed (Byrne 1903, 72-73). The latter accounts ended with the slaughter of all those defending and sheltering in the castle, which was then garrisoned with fifty foot and twenty-four horse under the command of a constable, James Eccarsall (TNA SP 63/175, f. 92). Maguire was determined to retake the castle and set about this with the aid of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Cormac Mac Baron O'Neill, and many other adherents to the Earl of Tyrone. On 17 May 1594, three and a half months after it was taken, Irish forces established a blockade of the castle. Eccarsall, the constable, set out on a boat armed with a robinet (a light cannon) to investigate, but was soon forced back by enemy fire, with several of his party wounded (ibid. f.39). Retreating to the castle, he compelled the Irish to keep their distance with the three light cannon, one on the boat and two mounted on platforms at the castle. A letter to the constable of Cavan on 26 June reported that Maguire and Cormac Mac Baron had surrounded them in force and had been joined by Scots. The ward was harassed by fire around the clock for the space of twelve days, giving them little rest. Eccarsall requested that

2021

Historic battlefields in Ireland have long held a place in Irish public imagination and are an intrinsic part of the national consciousness. The land over which pivotal moments in Ireland history were decided can tell us a huge amount about the events on the day. The archaeological remains can add to what history cannot, and may preserve key events and the final resting places of thousands of those who perished. The sites can be the focus of acts of remembrance and resonate in the national psyche. Despite this, battlefields occupied an uncertain position in the archaeological record, with little detail recorded in the Sites and Monuments database, and little to connect academics, heritage professionals and the public with a massive untapped and underappreciated resource.
The National Monuments Service has moved to address this oversight by commissioning the Irish Battlefields Project, which has produced a large quantity to material, bringing together for the first time high-quality research on all the battlefields in Ireland. However, the question remains, how do we best preserve, promote and engage with historic Irish Battlefields?

2021, Historical Research, Vol. 94, No. 264 (May, 2021), pp. 282-302

In the late Elizabethan period Ireland became a critical focus of the Tudor regime as the Nine Years War (c.1593-1603) threatened English rule in the second Tudor kingdom and the country became a theatre of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604). As a result of this military emergency officials in Ireland began composing a deluge of policy papers from the mid-1590s onwards. Over two hundred of these treatises are extant. This paper provides the first systematic overview of this wartime discourse on Ireland. In doing so it sheds light on these writings and their significance for the history of late Elizabethan Ireland.

2021, Pre-suppression Jesuit Activity in the British Isles and Ireland

The British Isles and Ireland tested the self-proclaimed adaptability and flexibility of the new Society of Jesus. A mission to Ireland highlighted the complexities and ended in failure in the early 1580s, not to be revived until 1598. The fabled Jesuit mission to England in 1580 conceived in wistful optimism was baptized with blood with the execution of Edmund Campion in 1581 and the consequent political manoeuvres of Robert Persons. The Scottish mission began in December 1581. The three missions remained distinct in the pre-suppression period despite an occasional proposal for integration. The English mission was the largest, the bloodiest, the most controversial, and the only one to progress to full provincial status. The government tried to suppress it; the Benedictines tried to complement it; the vicars apostolic tried to control it; and foreign Jesuits tried to recognize it. Nonetheless, the English province forged a corporate identity that even withstood the suppression.

2021, Lough Neagh: An atlas of the natural, built and cultural heritage (2022) by Liam Campbell, William Burke and William Roulston (eds)

The Nine Years War, fought from 1593-1603, was the last attempt by Irish lords to throw off English rule and preserve Gaelic systems of law and noble privileges. The confederation of Irish lords came closer than many imagine to extinguish the authority of Queen Elizabeth I in Ireland. The conflict was fought along the length of Ireland, but is most often associated with the fighting in Ulster, more specifically Armagh, and the devastating defeat of the Irish at the Battle of Kinsale in December 1601. Lough Neagh, also known by the Crown as Lough Sydney, is rarely mentioned. This was because for most of the war it sat in the settled security of the Ulster heartlands, well away from war zones further to the south. However, the region was witness to the events at the very outbreak of war and the devastating terror of scorched earth warfare and famine that brought the war to its close.

2020, Architectural Design 90 (1): The Landscapists

The complexity of border landscapes far exceeds the simple drawing of a line on a map. Gareth Doherty and Pol Fité Matamoros discuss the work of the Critical Landscapes Design Lab at Harvard University Graduate School of Design in respect to the Irish/Northern Irish border – a landscape that in recent times has been a fulcrum for important epistemological issues and political machinations.

2020, PhD Thesis

Vol. 1 - Thesis

2020, History Ireland

Red Hugh O'Donnell died in Spain in 1602, 418 years later archaeologists in Valladolid dig to find his remains

2020, Tyrconnell-Fyngal Publishing

The news from Valladolid in Spain, that an excavation on the site of its old monastery of Saint Francis may exhume and identity the remains of Red Hugh O’Donnell, is momentous for not just for the family and his Clan, but for Ireland’s heritage. We all look forward undoubtedly to further news of Red Hugh's remains. Those of his brother, Rory, the 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, are also lost and not identifiable in Rome's Hispano-Franciscan church of San Pietro in Montorio. Their nephew Donal Oge O’Donnell, lies buried by the former altar in the old once-Franciscan Irish College in Leuven, Belgium, for which Ambassador O’Donnell has been organising a 400th anniversary for 5 September 2020, which was to dovetail with the O'Donnell Clan Gathering, with a tour of "O'Donnell" locations in Paris linking the two, pending relaxation of Coronavirus pandemic measures.

2020, International History Review, 5, no.2

This papers examines the part played by Ireland and Irish lords in the wars between England and France during the 1540s and 1550s.

2020, Journal of the Ordnance Society 26

The paper describes a fragment of a burst falconette and its context.

2019

The earliest gunpowder, known as serpentine, is frequently mentioned by authors. It is said to have easily separated into its constituents in transit, readily absorbing moisture and lacking power. The origin of these assertions is obscure but they are faithfully repeated by each successive generation of author. No original source is cited and it reflects poorly on the scholarship of authors that no attempt has been made to verify these claims. This paper attempts to examine the facts in the light of current knowledge of powder handling technologies and ballistics. Although the energy potential depends only on the ratio of ingredients, the burning characteristics of serpentine powder are radically different from later, corned, powder and the influence of this on gun design is explored.

2019, Irish Historical Studies

2019, Ireland in the ‘Three Kingdoms’, 1500-1660

Gaelic Ireland before the end of the sixteenth century had a distinctive political and social system known as a lineage. The lineage system meant that each lord and sept claimed a common ancestor and the land they occupied was in theory an independent political unit. This system accounted for the difficulty in controlling the inhabitants and administrating a central control over them.