Imagining Ireland's Pasts describes how various authors addressed the history of early modern Ireland over four centuries and explains why they could not settle on an agreed narrative. It shows how conflicting interpretations broke frequently along denominational lines, but that authors were also influenced by ethnic, cultural, and political considerations, and by whether they were resident in Ireland or living in exile. Imagining Ireland's Past: Early Modern Ireland through the Centuries details how authors extolled the merits of their progenitors, offered hope and guidance to the particular audience they addressed, and disputed opposing narratives. The author shows how competing scholars, whether contributing to vernacular histories or empirical studies, became transfixed by the traumatic events of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as they sought to explain either how stability had finally been achieved, or how the descendants of those who had been wronged might secure redress.
1: The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Writing of Ireland's History in the Sixteenth Century 2: Composing counter-narratives in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 3: New Histories for a New Ireland 4: The 1641 Rebellion and Ireland's Contested Pasts 5: Eighteenth-Century Aristocratic Histories of Ireland During the Sixteenth and Seventeeth Centuries 6: Enlightenment Historians of Ireland and Their Critics 7: The Vernacular Alternative: Catholic and Protestant Popular Reconsiderations of Ireland's Early Modern History During the Age of Revolutions 8: Re-imagining Ireland's Early Modern Past: The Young Ireland Agenda, Dissident Views, and the Catholic Alternative 9: Re-imagining Ireland's Early Modern Past During the Later Nineteenth Century 10: Fresh Unionist Reappraisals of Ireland's History During the Early Modern Centuries 11: The Birth and Early Demise of a Liberal View of Ireland's Early Modern Past 12: The Failure of the Imagination Concerning Ireland's Past
Now a Professor Emeritus, Nicholas Canny was Professor of History at the NUI Galway, Founding Director of the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities, and President of the Royal Irish Academy. He is the author of Making Ireland British, 1580-1650 (OUP, 2001), which won the Irish Historical Research Prize, 2001, co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic World (OUP, 2011), and The Origins of Empire (OUP, 1998) amongst other publications.
Reviews for Imagining Ireland's Pasts: Early Modern Ireland through the Centuries
This study is a distinctive landmakr, seemingly far removed from the 'snappy' book that Canny originally intended. * John Gibney, Royal Irish Academy, History Ireland * Written in an authoritative and engaging style, this remarkable historical study is eloquent testimony to Canny's inspirational passion for and commitment to early modern Irish history. A landmark contribution to Irish historiography, it is essential reading for anybody interested in how Irish history has been remembered and used to serve present purposes down through the centuries. * Marian Lyons, The Irish Times *
- Winner of Shortlisted, Michel Deon Prize, Royal Irish Academy.
