Politics And Political Culture In Ireland From Restoration To Union 1660 1800

Political culture is not an idea that many historians of Ireland have engaged with, preferring more straightforward ways of thinking about the distribution of political power through institutions such as the vice regal court, parliament or the law. The essays in this volume take an organic approach to the way in which power is made manifest and distributed across the social world, considering such diverse themes as the role of political life in identity formation and maintenance, civic unity and the problem of urban poverty in Dublin, the role of money in the exercise of authority by Dublin Corporation, public ritual and ceremony in political culture, rumour and rancour in provincial Ireland, the public and the growth of Dublin city, and the Belfast/Bordeaux merchant, John Black III's vision of Belfast society in the era of improvement. By focusing on the idea of political cultures and how they intersected with more formal political structures, these essays reveal new and unexpected disjunctions that contemporaries were well aware of, and carefully managed, but which have been marginalized by historians. This volume resituates power where it was exercised on a daily basis and in do

Between the years 1778 and 1784, groups that had previously been excluded from the Irish political sphere—women, Catholics, lower-class Protestants, farmers, shopkeepers, and other members of the laboring and agrarian classes—began to imagine themselves as civil subjects with a stake in matters of the state. This politicization of non-elites was largely driven by the Volunteers, a local militia force that emerged in Ireland as British troops were called away to the American War of Independence. With remarkable speed, the Volunteers challenged central features of British imperial rule over Ireland and helped citizens express a new Irish national identity. In A Nation of Politicians, Padhraig Higgins argues that the development of Volunteer-initiated activities—associating, petitioning, subscribing, shopping, and attending celebrations—expanded the scope of political participation. Using a wide range of literary, archival, and visual sources, Higgins examines how ubiquitous forms of communication—sermons, songs and ballads, handbills, toasts, graffiti, theater, rumors, and gossip—encouraged ordinary Irish citizens to engage in the politics of a more inclusive society and consider the broader questions of civil liberties and the British Empire. A Nation of Politicians presents a fascinating tale of the beginnings of Ireland’s richly vocal political tradition at this important intersection of cultural, intellectual, social, and public history. Winner of the Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book, American Conference for Irish Studies

This book brings together thirteen of the leading historians of the period to investigate the political, social and cultural significance of the Irish Act of Union. Marking the bicentenary of the passage of the act, the contributors combine to provide an authoritative account of the state of the historical debate. Divided in four sections, the book investigates the origins of the act, its actual passage into legislation, the political debate which surrounded the act in Ireland and beyond, and the central role played by religious considerations in its final shaping. This book provides the results of recent research into the passing of the Union, and supplies the reader with an indispensable starting-point for understanding the significance of the 1801 union of Ireland with Britain.

Amidst current interest in Scottish political and parliamentary history before 1707, this book emphasises the dynamic and characteristic cosmopolitanism of Restoration intellectual culture as revealed from a range of national, British and Continental perspectives."--BOOK JACKET.

This text shows how the militia played a larger role in the defence of 18th century Ireland than has hitherto been realised, and how it's reliability was therefore a key point for the government.

This indispensable introductory guide offers students a number of highly focused chapters on key themes in Restoration history. Each addresses a core question relating to the period 1660-1714, and uses artistic and literary sources – as well as more traditional texts of political history – to illustrate and illuminate arguments. George Southcombe and Grant Tapsell provide clear analyses of different aspects of the era whilst maintaining an overall coherence based on three central propositions: - 1660-1714 represents a political world fundamentally influenced by the civil wars and interregnum - The period can best be understood by linking together types of evidence too often separated in conventional accounts - The high politics of kings and their courts should be examined within broader social and geographical contexts Featuring chapters on the exclusion crisis, Charles II and James VII/II, as well as the British dimension, restoration culture, and politics out-of-doors, this is essential reading for anyone studying this fascinating period in British history.

Charles II was restored to the rule of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1660, less than twelve years after the execution of his father, Charles I, and the ensuing republican experiment in government. Popular at first, the Restoration nevertheless failed to provide lasting settlement in any of the British kingdoms. Restoration and Revolution in Britain examines the political history of these kingdoms, from the Interregnum through Britain's eighteenth-century rise to power. Written especially for students approaching the Restoration for the first time, this essential introduction: - Assesses the reasons for the failure of settlement in the reigns of Charles and of his brother, James II - Integrates the histories of Charles's different realms - Examines the many connections between politics and Protestant religious disagreements - Provides helpful historical context for understanding a range of contemporary authors such as Bunyan, Locke and Milton - Concludes with an examination of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 and explains why settlement was finally achieved through revolution rather than through restoration