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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 1d

This is an excellent bargain, especially if you're in Ireland (free shipping!)

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At the Rising of the Moon: The Peasantry and Ireland from the Tudor Conquest to the fall of Landlordism

paperback.

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Reposted

Eastwood Books @eastwoodbooks.bsky.social · 4d

We were terribly sorry to learn of the passing of Dr Beatrice Doran yesterday. Beatrice was a passionate historian of Donnybrook and her books on the subject are a tribute to her. She was also wonderful company. She will be sadly missed. RIP.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

David Hayton once told me that the best thing a historian can do to be immortally relevant is to produce a scholarly edition of a primary source. Our monographs will be superseded, a good primary edition is permanent. Anyway, here's mine, just out.

shorturl.at/xJXNU

Letters from an Old Orangeman (Classics of Irish History): Amazon.co.uk: Mulholland, Marc: 9781068502323: Books

Buy Letters from an Old Orangeman (Classics of Irish History) by Mulholland, Marc (ISBN: 9781068502323) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks Patrick! You're quite right. An amendment to Marx echoes in my head - "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of demographic struggles" - which is melancholy, but hard to avoid completely. I'm struck at how long historians basically did their best to ignore it.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

15.
By the mid-18th c., the great population push ends. Protestant colonisation of Ireland slowed, though still encouraged (especially out from Ulster). Many Presbyterians emigrated to America. The legacy endured: a majority Protestant north-east, a majority Catholic south.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

14.
Post-1689: Catholics back James II; Protestants back William III (“No Surrender” at Derry). By 1700, Ulster majority Protestant; nationwide, ≈¼ of population Protestant—but unevenly rooted.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

13.
Cromwell plans mass Catholic removal “to Connacht” and Protestantise the rest. Lacks enough English husbandmen; many Irish remain as labourers. Still, ~100k new Protestants arrive (mostly English/Welsh).

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

12.
War, famine, plague: ~30% of Ireland’s people die. Extreme dehumanisation surfaces (“nits will be lice”) as conquest fuses social-economic redesign with exterminatory violence.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

11.
Owen Roe O’Neill fields perhaps Ireland’s best army; allegiances swirl. Cromwell (1649) arrives with New Model might; Clonmel shows fierce Irish defence.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

10.
1641 Catholic revolt targets plantations (≈4,000 killed; propaganda claims far higher). Ulster Protestants rally; Munster plantation nearly collapses. A three-sided war follows (Parliament, Crown, Catholic Ireland).

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

9.
Settlers are divided too: Crown enforces conformity (Wentworth/Strafford). Many Ulster ministers flee; help spark Scotland’s National Covenant. Ulster Presbyterians coerced into the Black Oath (1639).

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

8.
1600–1641: population rises 1.4M → 2.1M; ~100k immigrants (≈30k Scots, 70k English/Welsh). 23 of 31 years see rebellion—friction becomes constant.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

7.
Religious shock: Presbyterian Scots & Church of Ireland English vs a consolidating Roman Catholic elite. 1614 Synod of Drogheda laments a “fearful change.”

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

6.
Beyond Ulster, the Munster Plantation (Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Limerick) reaches ~14k settlers by 1622 and ~22k by 1641.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

5.
Native Catholics often remain as tenants/labourers (despite statutes). Settlers split roughly 1/3 yeomen/farmers and 2/3 labourers/servants.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

4.
Within ~20 years: ≈13,000 British males in Ulster (only ~7,000 inside the formal plantation). Scots are mostly Lowland Presbyterians; Highland Catholics rare.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

3.
Ethno-religious zoning: Donegal & Tyrone largely Scottish; Armagh & Derry mainly English; Fermanagh & Cavan mixed. Down & Antrim privately planted by Scots.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

2.
After Ulster’s defeat, the Crown launches the Ulster Plantation across Tyrone, Coleraine/Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh, Armagh & Cavan; 1/10 of land to 12 London guilds (founding Londonderry).

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

1.
🧵 How conquest, plantation & religion remade Ireland (1600s): from Gaelic Catholic society to a land divided by Protestant settlement—especially in Ulster.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 2d

In the book I did some stats collation from a variety of second works on demographic shifts in Ireland from plantation to the first half or so of the eighteenth-century. A thread. shorturl.at/DdVeE

At the Rising of the Moon: The Peasantry and Ireland from the Tudor Conquest to the fall of Landlordism: Amazon.co.uk: Mulholland, Marc: 9781916742772: Books

Buy At the Rising of the Moon: The Peasantry and Ireland from the Tudor Conquest to the fall of Landlordism by Mulholland, Marc (ISBN: 9781916742772) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and ...

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 3d

15.
Thus, the Tudor conquest didn’t just Anglicise Ireland — it invented the Irish peasantry. Landlords above, tenants below. The one very consequential division was Catholic/'Native' and Protestant/'Settler'.

marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 3d

14.
Because they shared this common dispossession, the Irish tenants became an unusually unified, militant peasantry. What in Europe developed only after feudalism’s slow decay existed in Ireland from the start: a collective hostility to landlord power.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 3d

13.
The result: Ireland emerged without the protective web of tenant rights found in England or continental Europe. The Irish peasantry possessed no prescriptive or copyhold claims — only the will of the landlord.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 3d

12.
By 1608, the English declared all Gaelic land tenure illegal. This set a precedent: in empire, the laws and customs of the conquered were void if “repugnant” to those of the conqueror.

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marcmulholland.bsky.social @marcmulholland.bsky.social · 3d

11.
Attorney General Sir John Davies justified confiscation: Gaelic customs like tanistry and gavelkind had “no estate in law.” The native Irish, he argued, held no property heritable in English law — so land could lawfully be seized and reassigned.

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