The Ulster Earls and Baroque Europe ─ Refashioning Irish Identities, 1600-1800

In commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the 1607 "flight of the earls" from Ulster, this compilation treats the impact of the Irish emigrants on the continent. Hugh O'Neill, Catholic earl of Tyrone and the bane of Elizabeth I, is the focal point of many of the essays as he and his men traveled across Europe to Rome. However, the Irish presence already there is the subject of others, particularly the Irish-founded colleges for the training of Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit priests. These existed in France, Spain and even Prague. Irish mercenaries were also pervasive in the armies involved in the political and religious restructuring of Europe. The impact of the Irish in literature and art is addressed in one section, while another looks at the way the continental Irish were busy redefining themselves and what it meant to be Irish in the religious and political framework of confessional Europe. The neglected subject of the Irish in Scandinavia is also explored. This volume does much to remind scholars that although Ireland is an island, it was not insular and that mutual influences between it and Baroque Europe should be taken account of in any study of the period. Distributed in the US by ISBS Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)