Imagining Ireland's Pasts Early Modern Ireland through the Centuries

Imagining Ireland's Pasts describes how various authors addressed the history of early modern Ireland over four centuries and explains why they could not settle on an agreed narrative. It shows how conflicting interpretations broke frequently along denominational lines, but that authors were also influenced by ethnic, cultural, and political considerations, and by whether they were resident in Ireland or living in exile.

Imagining Ireland's Pasts details how authors extolled the merits of their progenitors, offered hope and guidance to the particular audience they addressed, and disputed opposing narratives. The author shows how competing scholars, whether contributing to vernacular histories or empirical studies, became transfixed by the traumatic events of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as they sought to explain either how stability had finally been achieved, or how the descendants of those who had been wronged might secure redress.

Nicholas Canny, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Galway


Now a Professor Emeritus, Nicholas Canny was Professor of History at the NUI Galway, Founding Director of the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities, and President of the Royal Irish Academy. He is the author of Making Ireland British, 1580-1650 (OUP, 2001), which won the Irish Historical Research Prize, 2001, co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic World (OUP, 2011), and The Origins of Empire (OUP, 1998) amongst other publications.