The Ulster earls and Baroque Europe

Thomas O'Connor & Mary Ann Lyons, editors

‘Brings a fresh perspective to key themes of Irish history and not just to the causes and course of the flight of the earls … it contextualizes the experience of Irish (and Scottish) men on the Continent within the wider issues of European intellectual and political developments … [this] is a riveting collection of essays that greatly enriches our understanding of early modern Ireland and Europe', Eamon Darcy, European History Quarterly (2013).

‘This is a substantial volume in every sense … it is characterised by solid scholarship throughout. It is the fourth volume of essays published under the “Irish in Europe” rubric by one or both of the current editors, a series which has done much to uncover the sheer multitude of Irish experiences and encounters, from the mercantile to the piratical, the devotional to the conspiratorial, in a Europe stretching from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, from Paris to Prague. As the essays here demonstrate, such engagement could prove culturally fruitful or politically perilous … This is a rich collection', Robert Armstrong, Innes Review (2011).

‘Amid the insecurity concerning Ireland’s place in the world and the recurrence of emigration from the country, this, the fourth volume in the Irish in Europe series, is aptly timed … [it is] a well-coordinated collection which reassesses the flight of the earls in its European context … this book provides an Irish precedent for the phenomenon [of emigration], whilst articulating the keen sense of religious and cultural identity generated by early modern exiled communities.’ Benjamin J. Hazard, H-Net Reviews (January 2011).

‘The five thematic divisions of The Ulster earls and Baroque Europe cycle through an invigorating programme of biographical pieces, studies in contextualisation, assessments of impact, cultural constructions and back again. It fulfils that desideratum of any edited collection: the sum is greater than the parts … A number of essays will be of lasting use … That there are so many fine essays here – both by well-known names and some less familiar ones – shows that 2007 was not just a moment of commemorative history but provides a useful milestone for marking progress in the study of the history of the Irish abroad', John McCafferty, Irish Historical Studies (2010).

‘The growing corpus of work on the pre-famine Irish emigration to the continent has been given a new dimension in this book which uses it to explore bigger questions about the Irish in Europe', Books Ireland (February 2010).

‘In commemorations of the four hundredth anniversary of the 1607 “Flight of the Earls” from Ulster, this compilation treats the impact of the Irish emigrants on the continent. Hugh O’Neill, Catholic early of Tyrone and the bane of Elizabeth I, is the focal point of many of the essays as he and his men traveled across Europe to Rome … This volume does much to remind scholars that although Ireland is an island, it was not insular and that mutual influences between it and Baroque Europe should be taken account of in any study of the period', Reference & Research Book News (May 2010).

‘A very well produced volume … these essays evince prodigious research … this collection outranks most similar compilations in quality and range and should find a place in every library where Irish studies are comprehensively pursued’, Rory Brennan, Books Ireland (December 2010).