Early modern Ireland and Europe. Review article

Review of Mary Ann Lyons and Thomas O'Connor, "Strangers to Citizens: The Irish in Europe, 1600-1800"; Nollaig O Muraile, ed., "Micheal O Cleirigh, his Associates and St Anthony's College, Louvain"; Nollaig O Muraile, ed., "Turas na dTaoiseach nUltach as Eirinn: from Rath Maolain to Rome: Tadhg O Cianain's Contemporary Narrative of the Journey into Exile of the Ulster Chieftains and their followers, 1607-8 (the so-called "Flight of the Earls")"; Daire Keogh and Albert McDonnell, eds., "The Irish College, Rome and its World"; Thomas O'Connor, "Irish Jansenists, 1600-70: Religion and Politics in Flanders, France, Ireland and Rome"; and Igor Perez Tostado, "Irish Influence at the Court of Spain in the Seventeenth Century". Researchers of Irish migration to Europe in the early modern period are increasingly drawing on secular archives. Lyons and O'Connor summarise current research on the Irish in Europe between 1600 and 1800 for a general audience. Of the titles under review, only Nollaig O Muraile's new edition of Brendan Jennings's account of Micheal O Cleirigh's life and travels harks back to an older scholarly world. Muraile includes some corrections to the transcripts of saints' lives by O Cleirigh but no attempt is made to correct errors in Jennings's chronology. Muraile's new edition of Tadhg O Cianain's journal builds on recent research, incorporates in English translation an extended commentary on the exiled earls and adds a new linguistic dimension to O Cianain's original Irish-language text. Essays in Keogh and McDonnell's work highlight how the Irish College in Rome functioned like an informal embassy and indicates how closely connected were Irish and European ecclesiastical politics in the 17C. Thomas O'Connor's study shows that 17C Irish politics were embedded in the secular world and cannot be understood in isolation from the European context. Tostado's study investigates material in Spanish archives relevant to the outbreak of the 1641 rebellion in Ireland and the ensuing diplomatic relationship between Spain and Ireland through the 1640s and 1650s. (Quotes from original text)