Culture and society in early modern Breifne/Cavan

Brendan Scott, editor

The Breifne region of south Ulster/north Connacht (roughly, modern-day Counties Cavan and Leitrim), has been a traditional buffer zone throughout the late medieval/early modern periods between Gaelic Ireland and its Anglicized parts. As a border region, the clash of cultures was particularly noticeable in Cavan, the plantation project in particular proving contentious, as can be attested through the turbulence and violence of the seventeenth century. Yet despite this upheaval and uncertainty, great cultural and social strides were taken in the region in the run up to the 1641 rising. This collection of essays, which originate in a conference held in Cavan County Museum, explores culture, politics, religion and war in the Cavan area during the early modern period.

Brendan Scott is research officer at Cavan County Museum, the author of Religion and reformation in the Tudor diocese of Meath (Dublin, 2006), and the editor of Breifne.