No part of Ireland was unaffected by the military and political activities of the Anglo-Normans, who upset existing power-structures and faced Irish rulers with complex pressures and choices. This book examines the processes of conquest and colonization.

These essays explore aspects of the English colony in medieval Ireland and its relations with the Gaelic host society. They deal both with the foundation and expansion of the English lordship in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, and with the problems sand adjustments that accompaneid its contraction in the later middle ages. Attention is paid both to the government and society of the colony itself, and to the interactions between settler and native.

This book examines the development of English colonial society in the eastern coastal area of Ireland now known as county Louth, in the period 1170-1330. At its heart is the story of two relationships: that between settler and native in Louth, and that between the settlers and England. An important part of the story is the comparison with parts of Britain which witnessed similar English colonization. Fifty years before the arrival of the English, Louth was incorporated into the Irish kingdom of Airgialla, experiencing rapid change in the political and ecclesiastical spheres under its dynamic ruler Donnchad Ua Cerbaill. The impact of this legacy on English settlement is given due prominence. The book also explores the reasons why well-to-do members of local society in the West Midlands of England in the reigns of Henry II and his sons were prepared to become involved in the Irish adventure.

A groundbreaking examination of the colonial legacy and future of Ireland, showing how Ireland’s story is linked to and informs anti-imperialism around the world. Colonialism is at the heart of making sense of Irish history and contemporary politics across the island of Ireland. And as Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston argue, Ireland’s experience is central to understanding the history of colonization and anti-colonial politics throughout the world. Part history, part analysis, Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution charts the centuries of Irish colonial history, from England’s proto-imperial engagement with Ireland in 1155 to the Union in 1801, and the subsequent struggles for Irish independence and the legacies of partition from 1921. A century later, the plate tectonics of Irishness are shifting once again. The Union is in crisis and alternatives to partition are being seriously considered outside the Republican tradition for the first time in generations. These significant structural changes suggest that the coming times might finally see the completion of the decolonization project – the finishing of the revolution. In the words of the revolutionary Pádraig Pearse: Anois ar theacht an tSamhraidh – now the summer is coming.

Challenges the argument that the English Pale was contracting during the early Tudor period.A key argument of this book is that the English Pale - the four counties around Dublin under English control - was expanding during the early Tudor period, not contracting, as other historians have argued. The author shows how the new system, whereby "the four obedient shires" were protected by new fortifications and a newly-constituted English-style militia, which replaced the former system of extended marches, was highly effective, making unnecessary money and troops from England, and enabling the Dublin government to be self-financing. The book provides full details of this new system. It also demonstrates how direct rule by an English army and governor, which replaced the system in the years after 1534, was much more costly and led on in turn to the policy of "surrender and regrant" under which Irish chiefs became subject to English law. The book highlights how this policy made the English Pale's frontiers redundant, but how ideologically ideas of "English civility" nevertheless survived, and "the wild Atlantic way" remained "beyond the Pale".t, but how ideologically ideas of "English civility" nevertheless survived, and "the wild Atlantic way" remained "beyond the Pale".t, but how ideologically ideas of "English civility" nevertheless survived, and "the wild Atlantic way" remained "beyond the Pale".t, but how ideologically ideas of "English civility" nevertheless survived, and "the wild Atlantic way" remained "beyond the Pale".