Community in Early Modern Ireland

Book excerpt: The theme of 'community' has proved a focus of considerable interest in recent historiography, but has been neglected in its application to Ireland. Here the question of 'community' is pursued in terms of the political, cultural, social and religious condition of Ireland, and in its European context. Contents -- Tadhg hAnnrachin (UCD) on the ideal of representative communities; Colm Lennon (NUIM) on fraternity and community in early modern Ireland; John McCafferty (UCD) on early modern interpretations of the Island of Saints and Scholars; Tim Harris (Brown U) on politics, religion and community in later Stuart Ireland; Patrick Little (History of Parliament, London) on The New English in Europe 1625-1660; Clodagh Tait (U Essex) on Catholic bequests and recusancy in Ireland; Aoife Duignan (UCD) on Shifting allegiances: the Protestant community in Connacht, 1643-5; Darren McGettigan on the political community of the lordship of Tir Chonaill and reaction to the Nine Years War; Robert Armstrong (TCD) on nationality and spirituality in Presbyterian Ulster, 1650-1700