Padraig Lenihan Knihy

These ten thematic essays examine the three Irish wars of the seventeenth-century in relation to each other, thereby yielding important comparative insights. The military potential of England and, later, an emergent Britain, was immeasurably greater than that of Irish Catholics. John McGurk, James Scott Wheeler and Paul Kerrigan evaluate the logistical and naval strategies exploiting this advantage.Such was the disparity that an effective Irish military response to conquest and colonisation was only feasible in the favourable archipelagic and continental European circumstances explored by John Young and Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin. Defeat or victory ultimately depended on relative military performance in manoeuvre, battle and siege, operations evaluated by Pádraig Lenihan, Donal O'Carroll and James Burke. Bernadette Whelan examines the role of women as victim, survivor and, occasionally, combatant.'You cannot carry fire in a sack', Raymond Gillespie notes the impact of war, especially on urban Ireland.

The study explores the tumultuous relationship between Irish Catholics and Protestants during the 17th century, highlighting a narrative dominated by conflict and dispossession. Key historical events, such as the Ulster plantation and Cromwell's conquest, illustrate the violent consolidation of power and the emergence of a colonial ruling class. Lenihan examines the broader implications of these struggles on cultural, religious, and social dynamics, ultimately revealing how the failures to forge a unified Irish identity have shaped contemporary divisions and historical narratives. Essential for understanding Ireland's complex past.

The narrative explores Richard Talbot's transformation from a survivor of the Drogheda massacre to a key player in the political landscape of Restoration England. Utilizing new primary sources, it highlights his intricate plots, including an assassination attempt on Oliver Cromwell, and his efforts to reconcile loyalties between London and Rome. As the Earl of Tyrconnell and viceroy, he aimed to restore power to his Catholic compatriots, culminating in his leadership of the Jacobite army at the Battle of the Boyne, where he ultimately faced defeat.

The proportion of wartime soldiers dying of disease as against combat injury, ran at about 70-75 percent in armies campaigning in Europe in the century and a half (1648-1789) between the end of the Thirty Years War and the French Revolution. Field armies doubled in size during this period and regimes usually fought for limited territorial gains, so

This narrative of the war in Ireland from October 1641 to September 1643 critically evaluates the performance of the Irish or Catholic armies and reveals the underlying shape of what would otherwise seem to be a shapeless sprawl of battles, sieges, skirmishes, massacres, and cattle raids.