29 Sep 2006

Mapping Ireland's Colonial Past

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

301MMcS