Colonial Ulster: The Settlement of East Ulster 1600-1641

"Rebellions are one way of responding to empire. The most significant response in early modern Irish history was this rebellion of 1641, when Ireland secured a decade of independence from English rule. Cromwell put an end to that when he invaded Ireland in 1649. What’s important about Raymond Gillespie’s book is referenced in the title—the acknowledgement that Ireland, and particularly Ulster, was very much a colony, and that what we’re looking at is a colonial society that was planted by tens of thousands of colonists from England, Scotland, and Wales. After 1600, it’s Scotland, as well as English and Welsh settlers, because King James VI and I was King of Scotland before he became King of Great Britain. Gillespie’s work is important because it focuses on the unofficial plantation of Ulster. You have the official plantation of Ulster, which was on the lands confiscated from the great Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and those Ulster lords who left Ireland in 1607, in something called the Flight of the Earls. He also looks in great detail at Counties Antrim and Down, which were informally colonised and planted both by Catholics from Scotland—the MacDonnells of Antrim—and Protestants from the lowlands—the Montgomerys and the Hamiltons—who created a ‘mini-Pale’, for want of a better expression, in East Ulster. It looks at different types of colonisation: in other words, top-down colonisation, sponsored very much by the Crown; and also, bottom-up colonisation, which is much more organic and includes Catholics as well as Protestants. When we think of colonisation and plantation in East Ulster it’s a mixed enterprise. This was a pioneering book and it’s as much a work of social history as it is of political history. To my mind, that’s what makes it so important. It was. The plantations in Ireland began in earnest with the Munster plantation during the 1580s. Ulster became the focus in the early decades of the 17th century, but it’s not only Ulster; it’s happening across the country. These plantations continue right through to 1641. There were multiple grievances, but one of the long-term causes of the 1641 rebellion was the plantations and expropriation. Something like 8 million acres of land was confiscated and redistributed mostly, but not exclusively, to Protestant colonists. That was a major grievance for the indigenous Gaelic-speaking population. There were other factors that contributed to the outbreak of rebellion in 1641. One was that they were responding to an era of conspicuous consumption that the plantation introduced into Ireland, particularly into Ulster. Hand in hand with colonisation went the commercialisation of Ireland: the need to use an economy that was based on money rather than barter and exchange; the need to adopt English fashions—not just the clothing but housing, English culture, English law, English tenurial practices, and English agricultural practices. We see this intense phase of anglicisation occurring, and it often cost money. People became very deeply indebted because they were building fancy new houses, and they were sending their children on grand tours or to be educated in England. The native elite, especially, were up to their tonsils in debt. When you’re up to your tonsils in debt, one way of getting around it is rising in rebellion and destroying evidence of that debt. That happens in 1641. Another thing to bear in mind is that the 1630s were amongst the most challenging years from the perspective of climate. We see a series of harvest crises and famines. We also see extreme cold weather, and this exacerbates the deeper economic crisis. “Rebellions are one way of responding to empire” On top of that, you’ve got religion. The majority population is Catholic, but there is constant pressure for Catholics to convert to Protestantism. Religion is a very inflammatory element of this. There is the desire, on the part of the indigenous population, to retain Catholicism and not convert to Protestantism. To cap it all, you’ve got a very heavy-handed viceroy, a man called Lord Deputy Wentworth who is out to screw Ireland and to make as much money for the king (and himself) on the back of Ireland—again, this expropriation—and he manages to alienate everybody as well. It’s a combination of factors, long-term and shorter term ones. Trinity College has an amazing archive called the 1641 Depositions that captures the complexity of the origins of the uprising in a remarkable way, so historians can understand these responses to intense colonisation and anglicisation, and how the rebellion expressed not only a desire to be Catholic and to have political independence, very much within the context of the three Stuart kingdoms, but also to be free of the trappings of anglicisation that the indigenous population felt had been foisted on them. No, he wasn’t. It’s part of that Three Kingdoms story as well. What happened in Ireland triggered big problems in England, and Wentworth’s was the first head to roll in the Civil War."