South Tipperary, 1570–1841

Religion, land and rivalry

David J. Butler

Named 2005 ‘Tipperariana Book of the Year’.

‘This book is an excellent academic account of the movement of people and of the major political upheavals in this area during the 270 years prior to the famine. It will serve as a great reference book for many people who wish to know what happened to land ownership and the reasons for the tension between the different Christian groups as they politically sought ownership of land and influence. [It is] a work of the highest achievement … beautifully published.’ John Cooney, Nationalist.

‘An excellent work of research which will long remain a reference source for all those interested in Church history in the parishes of South Tipperary … [it] is an important contribution to Irish regional studies and of interest to all concerned with Irish political and religious history', Canon G.A. Knowd, Diocesan Magazine.

‘A very fine study of the interplay of religion and politics in South Tipperary in the first three hundred years after the Reformation … Very illuminating … Beautifully produced … and very well illustrated with pictures, maps and diagrams. Even if you have never been to Tipperary, this is a volume worth having', Dublin Historical Record.

‘An important study … It tells with frankness and bleak honesty how a political and religious minority established and extended its hold in a particular area, and how the majority community maintained its cohesion, and eventually prised open that hegemony. It illuminates the chronic insecurities of privileged minority rule, and some root causes of later troubles', Martin Mansergh, Irish Times.

‘A splendid book ... Full of information and scholarship, it is an important story well told. It is so good that I am tempted to send copies to our Irish Catholic Bishops – just to give them a dose of historical reality, as they ally themselves to Blair and Mandelson on CAP change … wherever one lives in Ireland, this book is worthwhile. It gives a special insight almost like a time capsule of South Tipperary … A great achievement by David Butler', Joe Rea, Farmer’s Journal.

‘A thorough-going and comprehensive account of Tipperary’s south riding over a turbulent period, illustrated with maps and prints, lists and tables, scrupulous source notes and a whopping bibliography', Books Ireland.

'This is a most important book … Dr Butler shows his origins as a geographer by the frequency of maps and tables throughout this book … The bibliography is superb', Robert MacCarthy, Tipperary Historical Journal.

‘David Butler has in this scholarly book championed the merits of traditional historical geography …. Throughout the book his native familiarity with the towns and countryside of south Tipperary gives him the status of an insider participant and that unrivalled access to the nuances of place which escapes the stranger’ …. David Butler’s fine book repays the intense scrutiny demanded of the reader. It is another significant contribution to what justifiably may be called Tipperary studies.…Overall this is an exemplary work of scholarship', William Nolan, Irish Economic & Social History.

'Butler's South Tipperary is a tremendous feat of scholarship. More simply than the publication of a university dissertation, this is a comprehensive study that provides a model for other regional histories', Hiram Morgan, Journal of Cork Historical and Archaeological Society.

'David J. Butler’s book explores and analyzes the relationship between Protestants and Catholics in South Tipperary from the time of the Reformation to the achievement of Catholic Emancipation. It is an excellently researched book … Butler’s work will be of interest to Tipperary people, to historians, to students of Irish history, to ecumenists, and to anyone interested in understanding the impact of religion, land, and rivalry between the late sixteenth and mid-nineteenth century in South Tipperary. Dr Butler is to be congratulated on this fine piece of research which has established him as a hêgemôn in this area of expertise', Conn Ó Maoldhomhnalgh, The Catholic Historical Review.

‘A wonderful work of scholarship and a gem for the genealogist and local historian ... Butler certainly succeeds in his objective to chart the changing relationship between the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities in south Tipperary and thereby, provides a fascinating and detailed history of South Tipperary up to the period just prior to the Great Famine. The appendices and the bibliography are excellent’, Michael Merrigan, Ireland's Genealogical Gazette (April, 2008).

‘Genuinely multidisciplinary research is demanding, and those who undertake it deserve respect. To provide the raw material for his spatial and cartographical analysis, Butler has processed an impressive volume of historical data’, S. J. Connolly, H-Albion (Online review, March 2007).

‘This work is the product of careful research, ably written, and illustrated with extensive data’, Thomas P. Power, Studia Hibernica (October 2008).

‘Dr. Butler … has a light touch, which makes his work very readable … the book has an outstanding and wide ranging bibliography which constitutes an excellent reading list for those who wish to know and understand more of the political and social conditions of the time being studied. The appendices are excellent and informative lists … Dr. Butler, being a Tipperary man, well understands the lie of the land in Tipperary and is deeply in sympathy with the terrain he writes about', Mary Casteleyn, The Irish Genealogist (2010).