Ruling Ireland, 1685-1742: Politics, Politicians and Parties. Irish Historical Monographs Vol. 1

During the past three decades D. W. Hayton has established himself as one of the leading authorities on post-Glorious Revolution Irish history. In an impressive number of ground-breaking articles and essays in scholarly journals and edited collections, he has shed light upon many dark areas of Irish history in the period from the 1680s to the 1740s and beyond. Long before ‘new British history’ became fashionable, Hayton had been using that approach by applying rigorous scholarship and incisive analysis to an exhaustive array of primary sources relating to Ireland, England and Scotland. As the author himself points out, this new history “is not really new” (7). Individual scholars had been quietly practicing it for many decades before it became fashionable, some even looking beyond the geographical boundaries of the British Isles to the wider imperial system (which is also now becoming a popular ‘new’ history). For Hayton, the “simple, and obvious, truth is that it is impossible to understand the way Ireland was governed in the first half of the eighteenth century without an appreciation of the nature of English political development” (6).

Keeping faith throughout with that simple truth, the present book serves a number of purposes. At its most obvious, it functions as an important collection of eight separate essays, one of which is wholly new, by an established and respected historian. Yet the work also serves as a more traditional monograph in that the sum of its separate parts convincingly makes up a coherent whole—not least in that the individual pieces all fit neatly into a chronological timeframe that starts in chapter one in the 1680s and finishes in chapter eight in the 1740s and in that it is all bound up with a purposeful introduction and conclusion. Thus it is not a surprise that the book is published as part of the new Boydell Press Irish Historical Monograph Series. However, the book also provides the reader with richly textured and illuminating insight into the formation over several decades of the author’s mature and detailed understanding of the complexities of the period in question. In many ways this latter aspect of the book is best illustrated by the new piece in the collection, “Anglo-Irish politics, 1692-1704: the rise of party” (35-105). The nuances of Whig and Tory party politics in Ireland, first addressed by Hayton in the 1970s, are here brought to the fore in a manner not realized elsewhere by anyone working in the area. The piece is clearly the result of much more than the sources cited and the author’s analysis: Here is the culmination of decades of learning about early modern Ireland and Britain in particular and the discipline of history in general.

Although the other seven chapters are reproductions of earlier articles and essays, they have all been revised, and in at least one case, as the author points out, almost wholly re-written. Thus, for example, having set the ball rolling in 1979 with his re-assessment of the origins of the “undertaker system” in Thomas Bartlett and D. W. Hayton (eds.), Penal Era and Golden Age. Essays in Irish History, Hayton has in the current book further developed his foundational arguments on the subject in chapter three, “The beginnings of the ‘undertaker system,’” in light of work by the likes of Patrick McNally and S. J. Connolly. Elsewhere, the changes from the originals are even more marked, as demonstrated in the multi-layered and intricate arguments put forward in chapter eight, “‘A remote part of the king’s dominions’: Sir Robert Walpole’s administration and the government of Ireland, c. 1725-42” (237-75).

Throughout the book the updating and revision is also evident in the copious footnotes that direct the reader towards the most recent work carried out by other historians on areas connected to the theme of the book. Some may query the absence of a bibliography of printed sources, but, in truth, between the publisher’s laudable decision to use footnotes rather than endnotes and the inclusion of a three-page list of abbreviations at the start of the book, interested readers will have little problem finding the secondary source they desire. The absence of such a bibliography is further justified by the inclusion of a comprehensive list of the manuscript sources cited. Apart from four collections that remain in private hands, no fewer than forty-two separate repositories in Ireland, Britain and North America are listed. The breadth and depth of the manuscript sources is testament to the level of scholarly endeavour and commitment shown by the author to his subject and will serve many a researcher well, though it will prove difficult for any to equal.

Some readers may question the small amount of time and space dedicated in the book to subjects such as Catholic Ireland or Jacobitism when compared to subjects such as the Protestant, and in particular the Presbyterian, dissenting interest. Apart from its obvious centrality to the chapter on “Exclusion, conformity and parliamentary representation: the impact of the sacramental test on Irish dissenting politics” (186-208), at times it does indeed appear that the emphasis placed upon the Presbyterian interest and the issue of the test clauses of 1704 is overplayed. The instructions to Irish lord lieutenants in 1707 and 1709 to endeavour to repeal the test is central to understanding the period, as are the occasions when Walpole chose to address the same question. However, in all cases readers may wonder whether other issues, such as Catholic Ireland or Jacobitism, might not also have loomed large at the time in political considerations within the Anglican community in Ireland and England. There is also what may appear to many readers an oddity in that, although the word “Williamite” is afforded a capital “W” throughout the book, Jacobite is not spelt with a capital “J” (apart from the entry in the index), even though it derives from the proper noun Jacob or Jacobus. This oddity is compounded by the decision to give a capital for “Jacobean” (13), and is particularly noticeable in chapter one, “Two revolutions: jacobite and Williamite” (8-34), especially in light of the fact that in the original piece, published in J. I. Israel (ed.), The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and its World Impact (1991), Jacobite was always spelt with a capital “J.”

However, such minor quibbles do not detract from the generally high quality of the book. For the specialist historian and student, particularly at graduate level, this work is essential reading, but it should also be read by the non-specialist. Although the subject matter may at times be deeply complex, it is always handled with a lightness of touch and is presented throughout with a clarity of structure and a writing style that will make it accessible to any reader with an open mind.