Political Discourse in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Ireland
Political Discourse in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Ireland

Author: D. G. Boyce

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2001-05-17

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1403932727

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This collection explores the complex political thinking of a fundamental period of Irish history. It moves from the political, religious and military turmoil of the seventeenth century, through the years of the protestant ascendancy, to the revolutionary events at the end of the eighteenth century. The book addresses the basic conflicts of the age. In the case of religious politics it examines the hopes, anxieties, and interactions of Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians. It investigates the great political issues of the day - the constitutional thinkers and politicians involved in these struggles. Light is thrown on the great and the good - Swift and Molyneux, Grattan and Lucas - as well as on a huge cast of forgotten or never known figures, be they royal officials, lawyers, clergymen, landowners, or popular writers. A whole world of vibrant political debate is exposed.

Grattan's Failure
Grattan's Failure

Author: Danny Mansergh

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Throws new light on the underlying causes of the 1798 rebellion and 1800 Act of Union, by examining the connection between parliamentary and extra-parliamentary agitation between 1779 and 1800. Despite the title the book is not biographical but centres upon aspects of the ideology and political practice of Henry Grattan. This is because it is contended that Grattan was the Irish MP most deeply and frequently involved in manipulating popular movements in this period - contrary to the prevailing historiographical and biographical portraits of him as a strictly constitutional statesman. His vision of the Irish constitution included both broad popular participation and (through it) effective as well as theoretical legislative independence: hence his pivotal position within the study. It is argued that the existing histories have understated the importance of his role, along with that of his parliamentary collaborators, in sowing the ideological seeds of an attempted revolution and in personally encouraging extra-parliamentary agitation. He is popularly credited as the founder of the independent Irish constitution of 1782-1800 - but he also played a part in its destruction.