Political Thought in Ireland Since the Seventeenth Century

Political Thought in Ireland Since the Seventeenth Centuryis the first book to examine the history of Irish political thought. The contributors--all renowned specialists in their field--break away from the usual concern with nationalism/unionism in Irish politics to look at Ireland with new eyes. They provide a pioneering analysis of the development of political ideas in Ireland from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, with insight into previously neglected areas such as the role of the Scottish Enlightenment and early Irish socialism and conservatism. A wide range of original primary sources are used, from the "great treatises" to journalism, devotional tracts and poetry. The development of popular political thought is traced through figures as diverse as seventeenth-century poets, eighteenth-century clerics and twentieth-century novelists.Political Thought in Ireland Since the Seventeenth Centurychallenges preconceptions and offers excitingperspectives on a subject which has never been fully examined. Contributors: Breandan O Buachalla, Robert Eccleshall, Ian McBride, Vincent Geoghegan, D. George Boyce, Margaret O'Callaghan, Richard English, and Jennifer Todd.