Thomas Bartlett

This is a survey of the origins and development of the Catholic Question in 18th and early 19th century Ireland. One of the Beresford family remarked in 1820: "When I was a boy the 'Irish People' meant the Protestants, now it means the Roman Catholics." In essence this book traces how that change came about and explains its causes. Contents: The Seventeenth Century Background, 1600-1690; The Penal Laws: Politics and the Protestant Nation, 1690-1750; The Emergence of the Catholic Question in the 1750s; European Enlightenment, English Perceptions and Irish Politics, 1750-1775; The Catholic Relief Acts of 1778 and 1782; The Catholic Question and Parliamentary Reform in the 1780s; The Catholic Relief Act of 1792; The 1793 Revolution; "Catholic Defenderism...Protestant Ascendancy": Ireland 1784-95; "To Rally the Protestants": Ireland 1795-98; Rebellion and Union, 1798-1801; The Rise of the Catholic Nation, Part 1, 1801-12; The Rise of the Catholic Nation, Part 2, 1813-23; Epilogue: The Winning of Catholic Emancipation, 1823-29; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

The number of people taking Irish Studies courses has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Until now, however, there has been no basic introductory textbook which would enable students coming to the subject for the first time to familiarize themselves with its essential elements. This book is for them. The basic approach is historical. Starting with a geographer's account of landscape and habitat, there follows a series of essays surveying Ireland from the middle ages to the mid-nineteenth century through the eyes of historians, linguists and literary critics. The cultural tension between the Anglo-Irish world and the declining Gaelic world is constantly kept in view. Both the cultural and political revivals of the early twentieth century are dealt with and the concluding essays deal with the structures and culture of modern Ireland. This book is an essential reading for everyone interested in an up-to-date account of Irish history, literature, society and culture. Contents: Introduction: What is Irish Studies?; Ireland: Habitat, Culture and Personality,^R Mary Cawley; The Legacy of the Middle Ages GearÛid MacNiocaill; Gaelic Culture in Crisis: The Literary Response 1600-1850, Se·n ^D'O Tuama; 'What Ish My Nation?': Themes in Irish History 1550-1850, Thomas Bartlett; Emigration and Exile, Chris Curtin, Riana O'Dwyer, GearÛid ^D'O Tuathaigh; The Irish Tradition and Nineteenth-Century Fiction: A Review, Patrick Sheeran; Writing in Gaelic since 1880, Noel McGonagle; Translation and Transition: Writing in English 1700-1900, Riana O'Dwyer; From United Kingdom to Divided Island: Aspects of the Irish Experience 1850-1922, GearÛid ^D'O Tuathaigh; Politics and Society in Post-Independence Ireland, Tom Boylan, Chris Curtin, Liam O'Dowd; Twentieth-Century Irish Literature, Gerald Dawe, D.E.S. Maxwell, Riana O'Dwyer; A Changing Society: Ireland since the 1960s, Tom Boylan, Chris Curtin, Michael Laver; From Megalith to Megastore: Broadcast