Edmund Sexten Pery

The politics of virtue and intrigue in eighteenth-century Ireland

David A. Fleming

Edmund Sexten Pery was one of the great Irish parliamentarians of the eighteenth century. His political career, as a prominent patriot in the 1750s and 1760s and later as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons between 1771 and 1785, ensured that he was at the heart of political life and government in Ireland. Pery’s prominent role in shaping patriot ideology and the hidden part he played in securing ‘Free Trade’ in 1779 and legislative independence in 1782 is explored in this biography, as are the successes and failures of the economic and urban projects he championed.

David A. Fleming is a senior lecturer in history at the Department of History, UL. His research concentrates on the social and political development of eighteenth-century Ireland, including provincial politics, poverty, religious conversion, associational behaviour and prostitution.