Contextualizing the Local

Brendan Scott, ed.. Culture and Society in Early Modern Breifne/Cavan. Dublin: Four Courts, 2009. Illustrations. xviii + 241 pp. $60.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-84682-184-4. Reviewed by Joseph Cope Published on H-Albion (January, 2011) Commissioned by Brendan Kane (University of Connecticut) Over the past decade, Four Courts Press has ships” (p. 69). County Cavan’s shared border with supported a growing list of solid local studies in the Pale looms large in this work, with many of Irish history. Culture and Society in Early Modern the essays emphasizing the ways that kinship ties, Breifne/Cavan, edited by Brendan Scott, is a fne cultural practices, and economic and legal struc‐ addition to this catalog. The thematic sweep of tures linked Gaelic, Old English, New English, and this interdisciplinary collection is broad: essays Scottish interests in the region. Jonathan Cherry’s examine Gaelic poetry and devotional literature, essay on Cavan town, for example, demonstrates landscape and historical geography, ecclesiastical the extent to which the O’Reilly family developed history, the social history of the Ulster plantations, significant connections to Dublin and the Pale in and the political and cultural significance of the the decades before the Ulster plantation. Cavan’s 1641 Irish Rising. Taken as a whole, this volume status as a Gaelic market town reflected these represents a significant contribution to our un‐ connections and also differentiated the settlement derstanding of issues in early modern Irish histo‐ from other parts of Gaelic Ulster. Raymond Gille‐ ry and demonstrates the important ways that lo‐ spie’s examination of representations of Brian cal studies can shed light on broader historical Ballach O’Rourke’s inauguration in 1536 demon‐ problems. strates the other side of the coin. This essay focus‐ The essays in this collection approach early es on the creative ways in which an ambitious modern Breifne (inclusive of the modern counties Gaelic lord used intermarriage with powerful Ul‐ of Cavan and Leitrim) as a frontier society. By the ster families and the reconfiguration of bardic sixteenth century, the region reflected a hy‐ material to cement his local authority and pres‐ bridized political order, in which, as Christopher tige. O’Rourke’s 1540 participation in surrender Maginn puts it, “English structures of local gov‐ and regrant--conceived in part as a means to con‐ ernment were superimposed onto Gaelic lord‐ struct O’Rourke supremacy over other Gaelic lord‐ H-Net Reviews ships in Leitrim--likewise demonstrates the ways tionable and suggested a “softness to popery” (p. in which an enterprising Gaelic lord could shore 177). up his local political power by playing on English Whereas McCafferty’s essay suggests the sig‐ structures of authority. nificant disagreements that could emerge among The plantation accelerated the hybridization committed Protestants, several essays on the 1641 of Breifne, resulting in the emergence of ethnical‐ Rising point to the ways that religious identity ly and religiously diverse communities by the could be deformed and jettisoned in the midst of mid-seventeenth century. William Roulston’s es‐ crisis. Roulston’s coverage of the Scottish planters’ say explores the significant Scots presence in responses to the 1641 Rising, for example, articu‐ county Cavan. Elsewhere in Ulster, Scottish un‐ lates the tensions between Scottish and English dertakers tended to settle Scottish tenants. In Ca‐ Protestants and explores the ways in which Irish van, by contrast, Scottish undertakers like Sir rebels opportunistically manipulated these divi‐ James Craig and the Hamilton brothers presided sions. Scott’s discussion of Protestants who con‐ over a mix of English, Scots, and pre-plantation verted to Catholicism in the midst of the rising era Irish tenants. Several of the other essays in the likewise underscores the ways in which varying collection underscore the religious diversity of degrees of religious commitment played out in the this frontier society, highlighting the (predictable) context of widespread social dislocation. Scott’s presence of Irish and Old English Catholics, and work further complicates this picture, offering English and Scottish Protestants; less predictably, tantalizing accounts from the 1641 depositions of English and Scottish Catholics and Scottish Episco‐ recent English converts to Catholicism who found palians had a significant presence in the region. themselves despoiled by Irish rebels in spite of Pursuing a theme that has been prominent in their religious profession. the recent historiography of seventeenth-century A number of the essays highlight the exten‐ Ireland, a number of the essays highlight tensions sive accommodation that occurred in plantation within the confessional communities. Brian Mac society as a result of the ethnic and religious di‐ Cuarta explores tensions arising out of the versity that characterized this frontier zone. Counter-Reformation, particularly “between Clodagh Tait’s contribution, for example, makes prelates educated abroad in the tridentine mould, very effective use of the 1638 will of Philip and a clerical body accustomed to the more re‐ McPhilip O’Reilly. Deeply indebted at the time of laxed style of an earlier age” (p. 160). Tensions his death, O’Reilly’s fnancial situation reveals the were also evident among the Cavan Protestants. pressures that Irish landholders faced after the John McCafferty presents a well-rounded essay on plantation. Tait presents a fascinating reconstruc‐ William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, tion of O’Reilly’s debt obligations to a range of and persuasively delineates the complicated posi‐ Irish, Old English, New English, and Scottish credi‐ tion in which evangelically minded Protestants tors, and demonstrates his ability to maneuver could fnd themselves in the seventeenth century. within the English law through the creation of an In his commitment to rooting out the institutions “English-style jointure” to provide for his widow of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1620s and (p. 196). However, the essays also suggest that ac‐ 1630s, Bedell reached out to Irish Catholics by commodation could itself be a source of tension supporting the Gaelicization of the Church of Ire‐ and conflict. Following the microhistorical ap‐ land. To many New English planters and clergy, proach to the 1641 depositions pioneered particu‐ however, this accommodation was itself objec‐ larly by Gillespie, several works in this collection address the experiences of planters in Cavan dur‐ 2 H-Net Reviews ing the 1641 Rising and the interplay between in‐ In general, elements of the collection seem dividuals from various ethnic and religious back‐ somewhat out of balance. Several essays--for ex‐ grounds. Scott’s contribution is especially note‐ ample, Nollaig Ó Muraíle’s work on the Duanaire worthy in this regard, providing a persuasive Méig Shamhradháin (the MacGovern poembook), analysis of experiences in 1641 that balances ac‐ and Annaleigh Margey’s “Surveying and Mapping counts of settler survival against evidence of op‐ Plantation in Cavan”--are primarily descriptive in portunistic and retributive violence. As the con‐ nature. They highlight underutilized sources for cluding essay, Scott’s work serves as a reminder of the history of this region and are suggestive of op‐ how cataclysmic the outbreak of the 1641 Rising portunities for future research, but seem out of must have been after decades of--perhaps superfi‐ place alongside the more analytical approaches cial--peace and stability. reflected in other essays. The late medieval focus This point, however, also suggests a missed of Ó Muraíle’s work and Salvador Ryan’s essay on opportunity within the collection. Although the representations of women in Gaelic devotional lit‐ book title suggests a focus on early modern erature represent useful scholarly contributions Breifne, the essays in fact stop with the 1641 Ris‐ but likewise sit uncomfortably with the sixteenth- ing. This in large measure reflects historiographi‐ and seventeenth-century focus of the other works cal conventions, with 1641 often appearing as a in the collection (Scott’s introduction acknowl‐ decisive break between two distinct periods in edges this point). Finally, although Breifne incor‐ Irish history. However, an assessment of the after‐ porated the modern counties of Leitrim and Ca‐ math of the rebellion would have been useful, van, the essays in this volume tend to focus on the particularly given this collection’s focus on the latter. Ryan and Gillespie both address the themes of continuity and change and the overall O’Rourkes and Scott’s essay on the 1641 Rising in‐ presentation of Breifne as a frontier society. Sev‐ corporates evidence from the Leitrim depositions. eral essays note that episodic violence and dislo‐ The main focus of the collection, however, is cation was in fact a normative part of Breifne’s county Cavan and in fact the essays tend to gravi‐ history--Jonathan Cherry’s reference to the razing tate toward the central and southeastern portions of Cavan town during the Nine Years’ War of the modern county. One wonders whether this (1594-1603) seems the most vivid example of this reflects a deeper point about the declining rele‐ point. In light of this, one wonders what hap‐ vance of Gaelic Breifne even before the creation pened after 1641 and particularly what effect the of the English counties and plantations. More sus‐ upheavals of the 1640s and 1650s had on the di‐ tained engagement with this issue might

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