Spain and the Irish Mission, 1609–1707. Cristina Bravo Lozano. Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge. London: Routledge, 2019. xx + 290 pp. $149.95

Over the last twenty years, a number of scholars have explored Spanish-Irish relations in the early modern period, particularly the Spanish monarchy's efforts to defend the Catholic faith in Ireland in the face of English oppression. [...]she suggests that Spanish monarchs had practical and political reasons for funding missionary work in Ireland: it burnished their pious image and helped counteract English Protestant power. Ultimately, while Bravo Lozano presents a number of intriguing individual stories, the book does not deliver a coherent overall argument, or prove that the Irish mission itself really existed in a meaningful way.