Religion, law, and power : the making of Protestant Ireland, 1660-1760

This is a study of religion, politics, and society in a period of great significance in modern Irish history. The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the consolidation of the power of the Protestant landed class, the enactment of penal laws against Catholics, and constitutional conflicts that forced Irish Protestants to redefine their ideas of national identity. Connolly's scholarly and wide-ranging study examines these developments and sets them in their historical context. The Ireland that emerges from his lucid and penetrating analysis was essentially a part of ancien regime Europe: a pre-industrial society in which the dominance of a landed elite depended on maintaining the balance between coercion, deference, and an absence of credible pretenders to power; in which the ties of patronage and clientship were often more important than horizontal bonds of shared economic or social position; and in which religion remained a central part of personal and political motivation. This is a study of religion, politics, and society in a period of great significance in modern Irish history. The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the consolidation of the power of the Protestant landed class, the enactment of penal laws against Catholics, and constitutional conflicts that forced Irish Protestants to redefine their ideas of national identity. Sean Connelly's lucid and penetrating analysis illuminates these developments and sets them in their historical context. -- Back cover Religion, Law, and Power: The Making of Protestant Ireland, 1660-1760 Introduction 1: A new Ireland 2: An Elite and its World 3: The Structure of Politics 4: Relationships 5: The Inventions of Men in the Worship of God, Religion and the Churches 6: Law and the Maintenance of Order 7: "Reasonable Inconveniences", The Theory and Practice of the Penal Laws Epilogue Bibliography Index This is a study of religion, politics and society in a period of great significance in modern Irish history, the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It explores the consolidation of Protestant power, the enactment of penal laws against Catholics, and constitutional conflicts.