The Nine Years War, 1593–1603
O'Neill, Mountjoy and the military revolution
James O'Neill
'Laden with fascinating insights and accounts, the result no doubt of extensive research by the author into a period often mired in confusion, given the diverse and often opposing English and Gaelic Irish accounts, the book [...] offers a truly enlightening account of the breadth and devastation of the conflict as well as the circumstances faced by both politicians and the average person and it does succeed in bringing this formative and fascinating period in Irish history to prominence', Irish Times (November 2017).
‘A highly informative study of the earl of Tyrone’s long war to free Gaelic Ireland from English rule. This is the first full treatment of the entire course of the war that brought English rule in Ireland to the point of collapse by 1598 […] A compelling analysis of what the Nine Years War reveals about Gaelic Ireland militarily, economically, and socially at this decisive moment in its history […] Extensively documented with a useful glossary of military terms’, C.W. Wood Jnr, Choice (March 2018).
'James O'Neill does succeed in making an original contribution in an admirable book that should command the attention of an extensive audience [...] the author uses the broad perspective he adopts, and the wealth of evidence he commands, to challenge recent publications on the atrocity dimension to conflict in Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries [...] A book brimming with ideas, [James O'Neill] deserves to be richly commended', Nicholas Canny, Studia Hibernica (2018).
'James O'Neill has written both a discussion of the reasons for Tyrone's extended period of success and comparatively swift demise. Contemporary illustrations are deployed to good effect ... Jame O'Neill is to be congratulated on the fluency with which he has integrated the descriptive and technical material within a campaign history [...] O'Neill's thorough research and lucid expression has much enhanced our understanding of early modern warfare in Ireland', John Childs, The English Historical Review (Oct. 2018).
'O'Neill has undoubtedly made a major contribution to our understanding of the Nine Years War, particularly in his analysis of the military organisation, tactics, and strategy of the Irish confederates, and its place in the wider context of the Military Revolution of the sixteenth century. His study is easily the best and most definitive account of the Nine Years War', Edward Tenance, H-Net Review (Mar. 2019).
'The appearence of O' Neil's Nine Years War is most certaintly an event ... The narrative account crafted by O' Neill is well paced and purposefully aims the book at the broadest possible readership. The images along with the narrative make the story of the different battles and the changing pace of events and exchanges very engaging ...O' Neill has performed a difficult task eloquently and effectively in constructing a narrative history with full analytical force. We will have to think of Gaelic Ireland and the history of early modern violence in a different way; and O' Neill's reconstruction of the Nine Years War should easily establish itself as a set text' Mark A. Hutchinson, The Journal of the Historical Association, (2019).
