Confederate Ireland, 1642-1649

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Ireland witnessed major military and political upheavals during the 1640s, culminating in the Cromwellian invasion and conquest. Throughout this turbulent decade, the confederate association in Kilkenny, the only example of sustained self-government by the Catholic Irish on a national level prior to 1919, controlled most of the country. This book resurrects the association's considerable achievements, focusing in particular on the emergence of an influential group of political moderates, led by Nicholas Plunkett. These moderates promoted a vision of an Irish kingdom, strong, independent and tolerant of diversity, in which loyalty to the Stuart monarchy, rather than ethnicity or religious affiliation was the primary political consideration, thus anticipating by over a century the reforming nationalist tradition of Grattan, O'Connell and Parnell.