David B. Quinn
Published: 1966
Total Pages: 250
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“The views held by sixteenth-century Englishmen of the Irish and their way of life were varied and often contradictory. This book explores the English impressions of the Irish during the period when England was trying to tighten her grip on Ireland and "civilize" its inhabitants. Attempts to impose English forms of religion, law, government, taxation, and social organization met with armed resistance; the author describes the old Gaelic society and customs that the Irish fought so desperately to preserve. Then, turning to contemporary accounts and drawings, he presents the differing approaches of the half-dozen major writers on the Irish—"curious, surprised, hostile, censorious, nationalistic, reforming, and, paradoxically, at times sympathetic and brutal almost in the same breath." Descriptions of the Irish by these writers comprise an important part of the book, which ends with the inevitable destruction of the old Irish society by Tudor repression and slaughter, and the movement of many Irishmen to England and the Continent. The volume contains twenty-five contemporary illustrations of Irish life.”-Publisher.
