Map-making, Landscapes and Memory offers a new and challenging
analysis of the conquest and settlement of Ireland by the New English
(and Scottish) and the consequences of this often violent and
deep-seated intrusion upon the cultures and landscapes of pre-existing
Irish societies. Map-Making, Landscapes and Memory: A Geography of Colonial and Early Modern Ireland, c.1530-1750 (ISBN 1859183972, Hardback, 245 x 168mm 640pp, €69, £49).
To enlarge on our understanding of this period in Ireland's history,
William Smyth has included over 100 original maps using often
previously untapped sources and these maps point up the nuanced and
regionally varied character of the engagement between local peoples and
incomers. The use of so many maps thus highlights many hidden
Irelands, often obscured in a strictly historical/narrative
format. Uniquely, the book uses Irish language (as well as
English) sources to illuminate Irish ways of understanding and using
territories and resources, understandings and practices which were
often undermined and eroded under New English rule.
Map-Making, Landscapes and Memory contains
three regional case studies which explore the early anglicised county
of Dublin, the hybrid, if feudalised, county of Kilkenny, and County
Tipperary, where the Gaelic north-west contrasted with the Old
English-dominated south-east.
Looking further a field Map-Making, Landscapes and Memory
examines the similarities and differences in the process and patterns
of colonization in early colonial Ireland and America. The results show
the growing integration of Ireland into a wider Atlantic culture and
economy, which saw massive emigration to, firstly, colonial America and
then more particularly to the burgeoning United States. In addition,
the book shows that Ireland was a deeply European country that was
subject to one form of European imperialism and became a colonial
society, yet also became an active participant in the expansion of the
Anglo-American English-speaking world.
The overall assessment reveals revolutionary transformation in the
nature of Irish societies and landscapes from the mid-sixteenth century
onwards. That transformation resulted from a violent collision between
the peoples of Ireland.
Map-Making, Landscapes and Memory will be launched by Margaret
Mac Curtain in the Aula Maxima, University College Cork on October 4th.
William J. Smyth is Professor of Geography, University College, Cork.
For more information about Map-Making, Landscapes and Memory: A Geography of Colonial and Early Modern Ireland,
c.1530-1750 or a review copy please contact: Mike Collins, Cork
University Press, Youngline Industrial Estate, Pouladuff Road,
Cork. Tel: 00 353 (0) 21 490 2980 Fax: 00 353 (0) 21 431
5329. Email: mike.collins@ucc.ie web:
www.corkuniversitypress.com
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