Brian Mac Cuarta SJ (ed.), Reshaping Ireland, 1550-1700: Colonization and its Consequences (Dublin: four Courts Press, 2011).

This collection extends our understanding of the colonial paradigm in early modern Ireland. An appraisal of Tudor government policy is complemented by one soldier’s view of late Elizabethan developments. Plantation cartography and building, colonial discourse, the peerage, Caroline political culture, language change and evolving views of the Irish past are further themes. For the 1640s, the administrative framework of the Depositions, revolt in one county, and the role of the Ulster Scots are explored. A final section considers how identities established earlier were shaped by late 17th-century developments: the recasting of the 1640s; the fate of the surviving Catholic elite in the wake of military defeat; and Irish Catholic emigrés in England.

For a H-Net Review by Christopher Maginn, see here.