Plantation Ireland: Settlement and Material Culture, C.1550-C.1700

At the same time that England was sending colonists to the New World it was also expanding immigration to its oldest colony, Ireland. This study of the plantations established from 1550-1700 grew out of a 2006 conference at Cork that drew from the disciplines of history, literature and archaeology. Lyttleton (archaeology, Memorial University, Newfoundland) and Rynme (archaeology, University College, Cork) encourage the authors to examine the evidence in a fresh light. Therefore, many of the earlier conclusions about the nature of the plantations and their effect upon the local culture are modified. Essays deal with the architecture of the plantation buildings, the proliferation of pubs, and the Scottish influence in mortuary monuments. The early (pre-Orange) Catholic-Protestant relations are investigated as is the impact of Catholic martyrs on the Irish. Color plates show early maps of Plantation Ulster. A startling side of Edmund Spenser as a forward-thinking farmer and industrialist is uncovered, which could affect future exegesis of his poetry. The work is tied together by examples of how a myriad of factors, plantations among them, were responsible for social, political and economic changes in Ireland as it moved from a clan-centered society to a capitalist one governed by a central authority. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)