Class divisions and the ‘mere Irish’ of colonial Ulster
Citation:
Gerard Farrell, 'Class divisions and the ‘mere Irish’ of colonial Ulster', Graduate Students’ Union of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Journal of Postgraduate Research;13, 2014Abstract:
This article seeks to delineate the class structure of indigenous society in Ulster
in the period between the beginning of large-scale colonisation at the start of
the 17th century, and the 1641 rising. This has been attempted in order to see
what insights can be gained from an analysis, in terms of class-struggle, of a
society that has often been viewed solely in terms of ethnic or confessional
conflict. Use has been made of primarily English sources, bearing in mind the
requisite caution that needs to be employed when using sources that were
often hostile and disparaging of Gaelic society. The 1641 depositions, for
example, were taken with the expressed intention of recording Irish crimes and
the sufferings of colonists; while in this sense biased in intention, they have
nonetheless proved of particular value in the evidence they supply of social
relations and contemporary perceptions of those relations, at the endpoint of
the period under discussion. The evidence thus gleaned about class divisions
among the Irish, and the way in which the plantation transformed this class
structure, are used to examine several key questions about early colonial
Ulster, such as to what extent the plantation represented a transformation of
the economy of the province, and offered greater economic opportunities to
the landless class; also examined is the hotly-disputed question of whether
or not the plantation was a primary cause of the 1641 rising which, it is here
argued, can be resolved by a consideration of divergent class interests among
the native population.
Author: Farrell, Gerard
Publisher:
Graduate Students’ Union of the University of Dublin, Trinity CollegeType of material:
Journal ArticleCollections
Series/Report no:
Journal of Postgraduate Research;13Availability:
Full text availableKeywords:
Colonial UlsterISSN:
2009-4787Metadata
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