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Textbook The Mere Irish and The Colonisation of Ulster 1570 1641 1St Edition Gerard Farrell Auth Ebook All Chapter PDF
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Cambridge Imperial & Post-Colonial Studies Series
GERARD FARRELL
Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial
Studies Series
Series Editors
Richard Drayton
Department of History
King’s College London
London, UK
Saul Dubow
Magdalene College
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
The Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies series is a collection
of studies on empires in world history and on the societies and cultures
which emerged from colonialism. It includes both transnational, compar-
ative and connective studies, and studies which address where particu-
lar regions or nations participate in global phenomena. While in the past
the series focused on the British Empire and Commonwealth, in its cur-
rent incarnation there is no imperial system, period of human history or
part of the world which lies outside of its compass. While we particularly
welcome the first monographs of young researchers, we also seek major
studies by more senior scholars, and welcome collections of essays with
a strong thematic focus. The series includes work on politics, econom-
ics, culture, literature, science, art, medicine, and war. Our aim is to col-
lect the most exciting new scholarship on world history with an imperial
theme.
Cover credit: John Derrick‚ The image of Irelande: with a discouerie of woodkarne‚
(Edinburgh: A. C. Black‚ 1883)‚ plate 12. Courtesy of The board of Trinity College
Dublin
Note
1. Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, The bardic poems of Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, 2 vols,
ed. and trans. Eleanor Knott (London: Irish Texts Society, 1922–1926),
vol. 1, p. 120, vol. 2, p. 80.
To my parents
Preface
ix
x Preface
1 Introduction 1
4 Cultural Superstructure 93
7 Conclusion 277
Glossary
303
Index
323
xi
Abbreviations
BL British Library
BSD Books of Survey and Distribution
CCM Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts
CPRI Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Ireland
CSPF Calendar of State Papers, Foreign
CSPI Calendar of State Papers, Ireland
HL Huntington Library, San Marino, California
LMA London Metropolitan Archives
NAI National Archives of Ireland, Dublin
SP The National Archives, London, State Papers
TCD Trinity College, Dublin
xiii
Dates
xv
Transcriptions
xvii
List of Figures
xix
xx List of Figures
Introduction
This volume is concerned with the effect which the first decades of col-
onisation had on the indigenous population of Ulster. It may appear
surprising that a work which takes this as its subject matter has the year
1570 offered as its terminus ante quem, given that this process, almost
invariably referred to by historians as the ‘Plantation of Ulster’, is gen-
erally understood as beginning in 1609. This book is premised, how-
ever, on an understanding of colonisation broader than merely the
official project of plantation formulated by the English crown in these
years. This is because the native Irish perspective, a recovery of which
will be attempted here, would have given little cognisance to the distinc-
tion between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ plantation which is often made by
historians. The geographic as well as chronological scope of this study
will, therefore, be accordingly broadened to encompass the counties
of Antrim, Down and Monaghan, despite the fact that these were not
included in ‘the plantation’ as it is usually understood.1 Rather than an
event with a definite start-date, the colonisation of Ulster is seen here as
a process of gradual and faltering encroachment by the state and the year
1570 a more useful, if necessarily arbitrary, place to start.
There are good reasons for regarding 1570 as marking a decisive
changeover on the part of the English state from an earlier, hands-off
approach, in which alliances were made with local Gaelic rulers in order
to exert some measure of influence, to a new strategy of planting col-
onies as a means of controlling Ulster more directly. Several important
milestones are clustered in proximity to this year. Shane O’Neill, who
had risen to power over the most powerful sept in the province in oppo-
sition to the government-backed branch of the O’Neills, died in 1567,
ending a significant threat to potential English hegemony over the prov-
ince. His posthumous attainder 2 years later saw the re-assertion of
crown rights to large areas of Ulster. These claims, which the English
monarchs had inherited from the earls of Ulster in the fifteenth century,
would be used to justify the confiscation of huge swathes of territory in
the aftermath of the 1607 Flight of the Earls. The decade beginning in
1570 is also important because it saw the first significant attempts in the
early modern period to plant colonists in the area, with Thomas Smith’s
project in the Ards peninsula and the Earl of Essex’s more ambitious
undertaking following shortly thereafter. This decade could also be said
to mark the beginning of an end to seeking to rule by proxy, although
subsequent agreements with both Turlough Luineach and Hugh O’Neill
to police the province would suggest that this strategy had not yet run its
course.
The decades between this and the plantation proper saw the military
onslaught of the Nine Years War (1594–1603), followed by a judicial
onslaught on O’Neill and O’Donnell power which, as will be argued in
this book, were as much a part of creating the groundwork for colonisa-
tion as surveys, inquisitions and other formal preparations. This is not
to say that colonisation was universally held as the long-term objective
of English policy for Ulster throughout the period. On the contrary, the
last decades of Elizabeth’s reign were marked by the absence of any con-
sistent policy. These years instead saw the testing of various strategies,
each of which failed in turn to bring about the desired-for transforma-
tion in the north of Ireland. Financial exigency loomed large in all cal-
culations. Acknowledging that the observation is made with the benefit
of hindsight, it remains the fact that throughout the latter half of the
sixteenth century a Gaelic society in Ulster, which had hitherto been
largely independent of the English government’s influence, was progres-
sively weakened to the point where it ceased to function as a self-sustain-
ing entity. Due to its importance for the native Irish, the events of this
period will be examined in greater detail in Chap. 3. This book, however,
takes a broadly thematic rather than a narrative approach to the planta-
tion. A brief outline of the project and its immediate circumstances may,
therefore, be useful in order to place this thematic discussion within a
narrative context.
1 INTRODUCTION 3
While the devastation resulting from the Nine Years War played a
role in creating the conditions in which large-scale plantation could be
considered a viable strategy for Ulster, the relatively favourable position
which Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, negotiated for himself at its end
in 1603 would have made this eventuality appear far from likely to con-
temporary observers. Indeed, the pardon and renewed title to his lands
which O’Neill had secured from Lord Deputy Mountjoy caused wide-
spread resentment among military men, known as ‘servitors’, who had
fought in the expectation of being rewarded at O’Neill’s expense. This
faction came to wield greater power and influence when their cham-
pion, Arthur Chichester, was appointed lord deputy in 1605. Chichester
hoped to see the creation of a provincial presidency for Ulster and his
appointment to the post, a contingency dreaded by O’Neill, who sought
to carve out for himself in the new dispensation an autonomous jurisdic-
tion. Chichester was ably assisted in his campaign against this by John
Davies, solicitor-general from 1603 and responsible for designing the
judicial architecture in which O’Neill would be contained.
O’Neill was finally defeated less by military might than the extension
of English civil administration into an area over which he had hitherto
enjoyed virtual sovereignty. Strongholds captured in the war were per-
manently garrisoned, county sheriffs and justices of the peace appointed,
and courts of assizes held. At the same time, the newly appointed
Protestant bishop of the area, George Montgomery, assaulted the integ-
rity of O’Neill’s territorial rights, seeking the wholesale resumption of
ecclesiastical property. These authorities’ fostering of a dispute between
O’Neill and one of his traditional followers, Donall O’Cahan, resulted in
legal proceedings between the two, for the resolution of which O’Neill
was summoned to London in the summer of 1607. His position was
undermined, however, by the activities of some of his fellow Gaelic rul-
ers in the province, whose fortunes after the war had taken an even more
unpropitious turn.
Rory O’Donnell, while awarded the title of Earl of Tyrconnell by
the crown, had seen his material circumstances decline considerably,
as the state allowed his rival and cousin, Niall Garbh, to carve out his
own sphere of influence in eastern Donegal, and defended the rights of
smaller landholders whom O’Donnell had attempted to dispossess to
augment his income. Assisted by Cú Chonnacht, one of the Fermanagh
Maguires who had likewise felt himself unfairly treated, O’Donnell made
4 G. Farrell
territory of the O’Cahan sept), was awarded to the London livery compa-
nies and renamed ‘Londonderry’, with instructions to create urban settle-
ments and promote trade and commerce.5 Smaller portions of land were
allotted to the newly founded Trinity College, Dublin, as an endowment
for the foundation of schools in the area, with the ostensible purpose of
anglicising the Irish and promoting their conversion to Protestantism.
This scheme, in its disregard for the interests of the indigenous
population, had the stamp of Davies and his chief justice, James Ley; it
largely ignored many of the recommendations made by Chichester, who,
besides arguing for greater rewards for the military caste, also believed
that greater native participation would be necessary to make the project
a success. The lord deputy’s scepticism about the abilities and commit-
ment of many of the undertakers would be proven substantially correct
in the years that followed, as a series of surveys (in 1611, 1613, 1619
and 1622) commissioned by the crown to investigate the progress of
the plantation revealed how dilatory many of the colonists were in ful-
filling its conditions, especially with regard to the removal of the Irish.
Economic relations between the colonial landlords and their Irish tenants
will be discussed at length in Chap. 5. There is, however, no great mys-
tery as to why the native Irish were often retained in areas from which
they were legally obliged to depart, given that such tenants were pre-
pared to pay greater rents and dues than English or Scots, who were in
any case proving difficult to attract.
6 G. Farrell
preach the Gospel where it was never heard, and not to subdue but to civ-
illize the Savages, for their ruine could give to us neither glory nor benefit,
since in place of fame it would breed infamie, and would defraud us of
many able bodies, that hereafter (besides the Christian dutie in saving their
soules) by themselves or by their Posteritie may serve to many good uses,
when by our meanes they shall learne lawfull Trades, and industries.18
Claims that the plantation project in Ulster had as its aim the spread-
ing of the reformed faith, as well as acquainting the natives with more
advanced agricultural techniques and manufacturing trades, were (and
continue to be) made. This book will carefully examine these claims.
Such an interrogation must form part of any modern assessment of the
place of the indigenous populace in the early modern colony.
Unfortunately, it does not always do so. Shuger’s article, for example,
is a prime example of the uncritical acceptance of what Francis Jennings
has dubbed the ‘cant of conquest’.19 It is claimed that the Tudor-Stuart
conquerors betrayed ‘little animus against what we now refer to as native
culture’ and that the anglicisation of the Gaelic Irish had ‘a great deal
1 INTRODUCTION 11
The convenience of this form of discourse is clear for those who sought
(and seek) to legitimise and justify the conquest and dispossession of
‘lesser’ peoples. For historians, however, it is a hindrance to the construc-
tion of a holistic picture of colonist–native interaction. Anthropologists
and ethnographers have led the way in the adoption of a cultural relativ-
ism with which to approach these colonial encounters in a more rounded
manner. The adoption of such an interpretive framework among his-
torians has been pioneered by those American scholars attempting to
correct the imbalance in their own colonial history and introduce into
1 INTRODUCTION 13
— Entä kuka te itse olette, hyvä mies? — alkoi eukko puhua aivan
toisenlaisella äänellä. — En voi tuntea teitä pimeässä.
Hän syöksyi pois. Pelästynyt Fenja oli iloissaan, että oli päässyt
niin vähällä, mutta hän ymmärsi sangen hyvin, että Mitjalla oli ollut
vain kiire, muuten kenties olisi käynyt hullusti. Mutta rientäessään
pois Mitja kuitenkin hämmästytti sekä Fenjan että mummo Matrenan
aivan odottamattomalla päähänpistolla: pöydällä seisoi vaskinen
survinastia ja siinä survin, pieni vaskinen survin, vain
neljännesarssinan pituinen. Ulos juostessaan ja avatessaan jo
toisella kädellään ovea Mitja yhtäkkiä sieppasi toisella kädellään
survinastiasta survimen ja pisti sen sivutaskuunsa mennen tiehensä
se mukanaan.
4.
Pimeässä
»Minne hän juoksi? Tietäähän sen: missä muualla hän voisi olla
kuin Fjodor Pavlovitšin luona? Samsonovilta juoksi suoraan hänen
luokseen, se on nyt selvä. Koko juoni, koko petos on nyt
silminnähtävä»… Kaikki tämä pyöri vihurin tavoin hänen päässään.
Maria Kondratjevnan pihaan hän ei poikennut: »Sinne ei tarvitse
mennä, ei ollenkaan tarvitse… ettei syntyisi pienintäkään hälinää…
ne ilmaisevat ja ilmiantavat heti… Maria Kondratjevna on ilmeisesti
osallisena salaliitossa, Smerdjakov samoin, samoin, kaikki ovat
lahjottuja!»- Hänen mielessään syntyi toinen tuuma: tehden suuren
kierroksen hän juoksi syrjäkadun kautta Fjodor Pavlovitšin talon
ympäri, juoksi Dmitrovskaja-kadun kautta ja pienen sillan yli ja tuli
suoraan yksinäiselle takakujalle, joka oli tyhjä ja asumaton ja jota
rajoitti toiselta puolen naapuritalon säleaita, toiselta luja ja korkea
lauta-aita, joka kiersi Fjodor Pavlovitšin puutarhan ympäri. Täällä
hän valitsi paikan, nähtävästi saman, josta hänelle tutun
kertomuksen mukaan Lizaveta Smerdjaštšaja aikoinaan oli kiivennyt
puutarhaan. »Jos kerran hän kykeni kiipeämään yli», välähti Jumala
ties mistä syystä hänen päässään, »niin kuinka minä en pääsisi tästä
yli?» Ja hän hypähti todellakin aidan luo ja sai silmänräpäyksessä
kädellään kiinni sen yläreunasta, kohottautui sitten tarmokkaasti ylös
ja kiipesi istumaan aidalle kahdareisin. Puutarhassa lähellä tätä
paikkaa oli pieni sauna, mutta aidalta saattoi nähdä myös talon
valaistut ikkunat. »Aivan niin, ukon makuuhuone oli valaistu,
Grušenjka on siellä!» ja hän hyppäsi aidalta puutarhaan. Vaikka hän
tiesikin, että Grigori oli sairas ja kenties Smerdjakovkin todella oli
sairaana, eikä hänen tuloaan kukaan kuullut, niin hän kuitenkin
vaistomaisesti painautui piiloon, seisoi liikkumattomana paikallaan ja
alkoi kuulostaa. Mutta kaikkialla vallitsi kuolemanhiljaisuus ja oli
aivan tyyntäkin, ei tuulen henkäystäkään.
»Ei siitä, että hän ei ole täällä», ajatteli Mitja vastaten samassa
itselleen, »vaan siitä, että en mitenkään voi saada varmaa tietoa,
onko hän täällä vai eikö.» Mitja muisti myöhemmin itse, että hänen
järkensä oli tällä hetkellä tavattoman selvä ja harkitsi kaikkea
jokaista yksityiskohtaa myöten, huomasi jokaisen pikku piirteen.
Mutta levottomuus, tietämättömyyden ja epäröinnin levottomuus
kasvoi hänen sydämessään huimaavan nopeasti. »Onko hän
lopultakin täällä vai eikö ole?» kuohui vihaisesti hänen
sydämessään. Ja hän teki äkkiä päätöksensä, ojensi kätensä ja
koputti hiljaa ikkunan kehykseen. Hän koputti niinkuin ukko ja
Smerdjakov olivat sopineet keskenään: kaksi ensimmäistä kertaa
hiljempää, sitten kolme kertaa nopeammin: kop-kop-kop, — joka
merkitsi, että Grušenjka on tullut. Ukko vavahti, käänsi päänsä,
hyppäsi nopeasti pystyyn ja syöksähti ikkunan luo. Mitja hypähti
varjoon. Fjodor Pavlovitš avasi ikkunan ja pisti päänsä ulos.
*****