Descendancy: Irish Protestant Histories since 1795
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Reprint, 9/1/2016
EAN 9781107440296, ISBN10: 1107440297
Paperback, 282 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book examines Protestant loss of power and self-confidence in Ireland since 1795. David Fitzpatrick charts the declining power and influence of the Protestant community in Ireland and the strategies adopted in the face of this decline, presenting rich personal testimony that illustrates how individuals experienced and perceived 'descendancy'. Focusing on the attitudes and strategies adopted by the eventual losers rather than victors, he addresses contentious issues in Irish history through an analysis of the appeal of the Orange Order, the Ulster Covenant of 1912, and 'ethnic cleansing' in the Irish Revolution. Avoiding both apologetics and sentimentality when probing the psychology of those undergoing 'descendancy', the book examines the social and political ramifications of religious affiliation and belief as practised in fraternities, church congregations and isolated sub-communities.
1. Prologue
Protestant descendancy in Ireland
Part I. Orangeism
2. Orangeism and Irish military history
3. The Orange Order and the border
4. The gardener and the stable boy
Yeats, MacNeice, and the problem of Orangeism
5. Methodism and the Orange Order
Part II. Covenant
6. Ulster's covenanters
7. Ulster's non-covenanters
Part III. Exodus?
8. Protestant depopulation and the Irish revolution
9. The spectre of 'ethnic cleansing' in revolutionary Ireland
Statistical appendix
Index.