The Origins Of Sectarianism In Early Modern Ireland

by Edited by Alan Ford , John McCafferty

• ISBN13: 9780521837552
• ISBN10: 0521837553
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Ireland is riven by sectarian hatred. This simple assumption provides a powerful explanation for the bitterness and violence which has so dominated Irish history. Most notably, the troubles in Northern Ireland have provided fertile ground for scholars from all disciplines to argue about and explore ways in which religious division fueled the descent into hostility and disorder. In much of this literature, however, sectarianism is seen as, somehow, a 'given' in Irish history, an inevitable product of the clash of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, something which sprang fully-formed into existence in the sixteenth century. In this book leading historians provide the first detailed analysis of the ways in which rival confessions were developed in early modern Ireland, the extent to which the Irish people were indeed divided into two religious camps by the mid-seventeenth century, and also their surprising ability to transcend such stark divisions.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
List of contributors	viii
List of abbreviations	ix
Living together, living apart: sectarianism in early modern Ireland	1	(23)
Alan Ford
Confessionalisation in Ireland: periodisation and character, 1534--1649	24	(30)
Ute Lotz-Heumann
Protestant prelates or godly pastors? The dilemma of the early Stuart episcopate	54	(19)
John McCafferty
`In imitation of that holy patron of prelates the blessed St Charles': episcopal activity in Ireland and the formation of a confessional identity, 1618--1653	73	(22)
Tadhg O Hannrachain
A haven of popery: English Catholic migration to Ireland in the age of plantations	95	(32)
David Edwards
The Irish historical renaissance and the shaping of Protestant history	127	(31)
Alan Ford
Religion, culture and the bardic elite in early modern Ireland	158	(25)
Marc Caball
The political and religious thought of Florence Conry and Hugh McCaughwell	183	(20)
Micheal MacCraith
Sectarianism: division and dissent in Irish Catholicism	203	(13)
Brian Jackson
Purity of blood and purity of faith in early modern Ireland	216	(13)
Declan Downey
Concluding reflection: confronting the violence of the Irish reformations	229	(11)
John Morrill
Index	240