'From the 1641 Rising to the Restoration' - A Lecture by Dr Robert Armstrong

This lecture is the second in a six-part series exploring Irish history from the Plantation of Ulster to Partition, organised to mark the 250th anniversary of Armagh Robinson Library, Northern Ireland's oldest public library.
This lecture covers the period from the 1641 Rising to the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660. The speaker, Dr Robert Armstrong, is an historian based at Trinity College Dublin. His specialism is the religious and political history of the seventeenth century, particularly the wars in Ireland and Britain in the 1640s.
The lecture was organised by Armagh Robinson Library, working in collaboration with Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and part-financed by the NI Executive Office. The Library is also grateful for support from the Northern Ireland Museums Council through its 'Museums Connect' programme.
The first lecture in the series (focusing on the establishment of Ulster's Plantation towns) can be viewed here: • 'The Establishment of ... .

[@deelynn8611]

Gorgeous! Well done Christian!

[@michealferrell1677]

I now see why my Irish ancestors came to Jamestown in 1658 . They were from county Longford Ireland and a question that I have is what was their involvement in the rebellion in Ireland , were they fleeing Cromwell or were they Protestant. The crazy thing is that my ancestor Captain Hubbard Hubert Ferrell who was in Sr William Berkeleys army and was killed wile being confronted by Bacons Rebellion 1676 .

[@waynemcauliffe2362]

Thanks mate

[@debanam]

This explains why my ancestors wound up in Pennsylvania, where they named the places they settled Tyrone and Ulster.

[@mattpotter8725]

Very interesting history literature, thanks for making this available online. One thing I don't quite understand is why the Irish as a whole, and maybe I make an exception of those given land by the Crown in the plantations or maybe the Presbyterian settlers (I can maybe understand why they would back a Protestant King), but why did residually the Catholic Irish landowners not to seek to negotiate with the e English Parliamentarians who had just won the English Civil War? Maybe I've answered my own question, and adding to what I've said maybe the missing part of the puzzle is the fact that Cromwell was more extreme religiously, more of a Puritan and this made that avenue impossible? I just would have thought that it would have been easier to put across similar thoughts of what many in Ireland were after before the English Civil War to what the Parliamentarians who came to power in England had. This has never been explained to me and I don't understand how those with power in Ireland didn't expect a backlash and consequences for basically backing the losing side. Maybe someone can explain to me why Cromwell is so hated in Ireland (I get that there were sieges and a lot of bloodshed) when the English were trying to destroy those who supported the English King, and from what I can tell her behaved how nearly every other military commander in Europe behaved when it came to siege warfare at that time. And just to be clear I'm not existing anything he did, it was abhorrent, I'm just saying that it wasn't out of the ordinary in that day and age.

[@matthewwilson3202]

Modern views get wrapped up in accounts of history. I'm from a nominally irish catholic background, but I imagine cromwell saw the theatre of war in ireland as a means to an end in mopping up the last holdouts in royalist resistance. The places he committed his worst atrocities in Ireland had old English identities. This doesn't detract from the gravity of the stuff he committed. I think cromwell disliked catholics and the Irish as much as the next puritan or 17th century English man. However there are a few accounts of him letting catholic gentry and their garrisons go free, unmolested after defending their castles with aplomb and little resources. There was a taffe gentleman in meath where this was the case

[@mattpotter8725]

@@matthewwilson3202 You're right and I'm sure this is the case, but before watching this (and other historical programs on TV) I always thought that it was Cromwell killing Irish Catholic. I'm not sure about this, but know from my own research into a family name of my ancestors in Armagh that those still with land after the Elizabethan plantations that some, I assume Catholic families, backed the crown to keep their lands. In my case there was a split in the family where one part of the family remained loyal to their Irish clan and were made outlaws and stripped of their lands whilst the other swore fealty to the English crown. Maybe you can say this was treading a fine line, they did switch sides as well. So I wonder if the Catholic landowner in Meath, despite being Catholic was seen as a royalist. I'm also not discounting that after the English Civil War there were some in Cromwell's army that were just bloodthirsty psychopaths who didn't care what religion you were and just killed for the sake of it. I'm sure that happened as well. I come from this from I'd like to think a fairly unbiased viewpoint as my grandfather's father was brought up a Protestant in the Church of Ireland, and he married a Catholic, which I'm sure it's rare. I'm not excusing Cromwell or saying it's not right for the Irish to hate Cromwell, I'm sure of the royalist strongholds many innocent Irish people who were just trying to get on with their lives as best they could, but I had never been told that Cromwell wasn't just butchering the Irish to make a point and I wonder how many of the Irish actually know the true historical facts.

[@matthewwilson3202]

The laws that preceeded the penal laws effectively meant that it was harder for catholic gentry to pass land on to their descendents, there are instances where the boys are raised as protestants and the female line as catholic. Other cases a non inheriting descendent will convert to circumvent the natural order and carve up land for themselves. Other families saw the writing on wall and converted to ensure the land stayed in their families hands. English and protestant became mutually exclusive terms in ireland and vice versa for Irish and catholic, despite one's personal heritage. Weirdly even in the cromwellian period it's quite common for english soldiers fighting in ireland to settle and take an Irish wife and within a generation their offspring are catholic and weigh in on the Irish side in future conflicts. Bagenals of bagenals town and bagenals Castle in Newry would be a pertinent example of this.

[@michealferrell1677]

It appears to me that there was a complete lack in the implementation of Christian doctrine.

[@dedicated.theemperorschamp6571]

The javobites were black and so were the original Irish your lying about history

[@conlaiarla]

You are obviously a very unhinged individual. 😊

[@michealferrell1677]

And the Jews are black too right ?