4 research outputs found
James Fitzpiers Fitzgerald, Captain Thomas Lee, and the Problem of âSecret Traitorsâ: Conflicted Loyalties During the Nine Yearsâ War, 1594-1603
Existing evidence pertaining to Irelandâs Nine Yearsâ War (1594-1603) strongly lends itself to the impression that the majority of Old English Palesmen, at least those of higher social status, chose to support the English crown during this conflict rather than their co-religionist Gaelic Irish countrymen. Loyalties, however, were anything but straightforward and could depend on any number of cultural values, social concerns, and economic incentives. Nevertheless, James Fitzpiers Fitzgerald, a âBastard Geraldineâ who served as sheriff of Kildare, seemed to have been driven by a genuine sense of duty to the English crown and establishment. With the outbreak of hostilities in the 1590s, Fitzpiers proved to be a devout crown servitor, risking life and limb to confront the English queenâs Irish enemies. But, in late 1598 he suddenly, and somewhat inexplicably, threw his lot in with Irish Confederacy, defying the government he had once championed. During the ensuing investigation, the Dublin administration accumulated much damning evidence against Fitzpiers, including a patriotic plea from rebel leader Hugh OâNeill which urged Fitzpiers to defend his Irish homeland from the oppressions of English Protestant rule. Yet, at the very same time, a counter case was made by Fitzpiersâ controversial English friend, Captain Thomas Lee, which argued that Fitzpiersâ actions were more loyal than anyone could have imagined. Through an examination of Fitzpiersâ perplexing case, this paper will explore the complicated nature of allegiances in 1590s Ireland and how loyalties were not always what they seemed
The forestry question considered historically
The main object of this paper is not to re-state
the case for forestry in Ireland, but to recall public attention
to the subject; and in doing so to endeavour to throw
light on the solution of a preliminary difficulty which is
encountered on the threshold of any attempt to extend our
woodlands, viz. :?Where should planting" begin, and
what are the districts in which it may be most hopefully
undertaken? It appears to me that the past may have
some lessons for us on this point, and that something
may be done from the point of view of history to supply
an answer to this question. The line of my recent reading
chancing to have brought vividly before me the extent and
value of our former forests, I have asked myself whether
light may not be derived from a consideration of the localities
in which those forests flourished, of the circumstances
which caused their destruction, and of the attempts which
have been made in former generations to repair or mitigate
the misfortune of their disappearance? It is to these
questions, and to these questions only, that I shall endeavour
now to give an answer
A memoir of the late John Kells Ingram, LL.D. - sometime President of the Society
In May last, at the first of our meetings which followed Dr.
Ingram\u27s lamented death, the President paid a just tribute
to the memory of "one of our most distinguished members,"
and to "the great work which he did for Ireland in this
Society." But the observations then made were, necessarily,
confined to a brief and passing reference; for the occasion
was not appropriate to such a considered notice of Dr.
Ingram\u27s career, and particularly of his connection with the
Statistical Society, as it has long been our custom to devote
to the commemoration of those who have been most
conspicuously associated with the Society\u27s work. Since the
name of Dr. Ingram must always be held in reverent remembrance
amongst us, not merely as one of the most eminent in
the list of our Presidents, but as that of, perhaps, the most
distinguished authority on economics who has ever adorned
the roll of our Society, it has been thought desirable that
something in the nature of a formal memoir should be
prepared for our Journal. It is hardly needful to remark
that, in consenting to become the medium for such a tribute
as we desire to pay to Dr. Ingram\u27s memory, I have no
pretension whatever to speak with authority on the value
or permanence of those weighty contributions to the history
of social and economic science by which his name
is likely to be most enduringly remembered. Were
the passing of such judgment the proper task of the
writer of this memorial notice, the Society must have looked
elsewhere for its author. But I conceive my function to be
the more limited one of combining with a brief record of the
main facts of Dr. Ingram\u27s life, an account of his work in this
Society, and of the part he took in founding it, together
with a statement of the purpose and substance of those important contributions with which, from time to time, he
enriched our Journal. In endeavouring to comply with the
wishes of our Council, it is impossible to find a more apt
precedent for the form of such a notice than that which was
supplied by Dr. Ingram himself in his memoir of the late
Dr. Neilson Hancock; a memoir which, though it defies
imitation in the justness of its proportions, and the lucidity
of its exposition, may fittingly become the model for all our
future attempts to appraise the work of our worthiest
members