Wild and Bitter Fruits and Royal Pains

Abstract

This chapter portrays the formation of early modern Ireland through to the formation and defeat of the United Irishmen. The conquest, and three subsequent reconquests, of Ulster and Ireland over two centuries, and their legacies, are traced. The reactive fusion of the Gaelic Irish and the Old English in the first manifestations of modern Irish nationalism are treated. The plantation of Ulster, the Ulster Rising of 1641, the War of the Three Kingdoms, and the Cromwellian conquest and its legacies are surveyed in turn, before a comparative portrayal of the penal laws and the impacts of the American and French revolutions are introduced. The costs of the failure of the United Irishmen are assessed.