Religious Refugees or Confessional Migrants? Perspectives from Early Modern Ireland

Abstract Early Modern Ireland was a society deeply influenced by contrasting currents of mobility. Indeed, together with the Netherlands, it can be suggested that Ireland was the Western European society most shaped by confessional migration. Uniquely in Europe, the kingdom witnessed the effective replacement of its existing elites by immigrants whose religious affiliation marked them out as distinct from the mass of the inhabitants. As migrants into Ireland, Protestants derived substantial advantages from their religious identity. Ironically, however, it was the moment of their forced flight in 1641–42 which became a touchstone of historical memory and identity for this community, commemorated by an annual church service on 23 October, the date of the outbreak of the original rebellion. Similarly, for the Irish military, merchants and clerics who constituted the backbone of a very significant Irish Catholic diaspora during the Early Modern period, an inheritance of religious persecution became a vital and cherished aspect of identity and a critical aspect of the perception of them by their host societies, thus blurring the lines between the categories of religious refugees and confessional migrants.