Sir Walter Ralegh in Ireland

Reviews / Votes

"University College Dublin Press has now published over thirty 'Classics of Irish History'. These contemporary accounts by well known personalities of historical events and attitudes have an immediacy that conventional histories do not have. Introductions by modern historians provide additional historical background and, with hindsight, objectivity." Books Ireland Nov 2007 "Scholars of nineteenth-century Irish and Irish-American politics should reacquaint themselves with these classics, part of a long running and immensely useful series from University College Dublin Press." Irish Literary Supplement Fall 2008 "Hennessy (1834-91) was a Catholic unionist who had the distinction of being the first Catholic member of the Conservative party to become an MP. Under the patronage of Disraeli, he had a distinguished career as an imperial administrator and served as governor of a number of British colonies. He ended his days living in Raleigh's house in Youghal - Given his background, one might expect his life of Raleigh to be a hagiography, but Hennessy attempts to achieve balance and recognised his faults and the problems he created. The book is also useful in reproducing many of the original sources for Raleigh's life. This volume is introduced by Thomas Herron, of East Carolina University, NC, who puts Hennessy and his subject in context." Books Ireland April 2009 "Pope Hennessy charts Raleigh's rise and fall with original documents and pithy commentary, showing that he was ever an adherent of the hardliner faction among Elizabeth's advisers in Ireland, constantly calling for harsher policies and condemning colleagues, for example as a prosecution witness in the treason trial of young Essex in 1601. Once one becomes accustomed to the archaic English, this book is still an enjoyable read and valuable source for studies of the Munster Plantation." Books Ireland September 2009 "Tom Herron has delivered an enhanced version of this short book by a nineteenth-century Irish politician on a sixteenth-century English adventurer - it is more a polemic than either a history or a compilation of relevant historical sources. - The aim of Hennessy's original work was to introduce and document the Irish aspects of Ralegh's career. In fact, it tells us more about Sir John than about Sir Walter and more about Anglo-Irish relations in the Victorian period than in the Elizabethan one. - Hennessy saw himself and his generation as not only reversing the wrongs of the past but also altering the trajectory of British imperial policy. In tackling Ralegh and Ireland, he was merely stitching together a series of already published sources so as to engage in a contemporary political debate. - What Hennessey did get right was the sheer violence and indiscriminate cruelty perpetrated by English captains in the Elizabethan wars. Here is naturally highlights Ralegh's involvement in the no-quarter given to the surrendering garrison at Smerwick, which Quenn Elizabeth subsequently commended as 'greatly to our liking'. - this politician had a lot more historical sense than some 'know-nothing' politicians of his generation. They are happy to commemorate the likes of Ralegh and Drake and apt to neglect not only their victims but also the likes of Sir John Pope Hennessy himself who put them where they are today." History Ireland Sept/Oct 2009 'This little book was originally published in 1886. It is in many ways merely a brief sketch of its topics, yet because of the status of the author it is of great interest. Sir John was founder of a literary clan that included the Dickens scholar and the art historian, and more to the point the biographer James Pope Hennessey. To this reissue the American scholar Thomas Herron has provided a long introduction pointing out the double perspective of the book, in which Sir John fascinated by the swashbuckling nature of the Elizabethan conquest, also tried to set it in a context for his own readers by seeing Ralegh's activities and attitudes as the beginning of many of the troubles that beset English rule in Ireland in the 19th Century. All would decry the Invincibles, but he reminds his readers that Ralegh and Queen Elizabeth had connived at the assassination of Irish chiefs. We could do with learning more about Sir John and his fellow Catholic landed gentry in Victorian Ireland. Perhaps the editor will oblige us.'Irish Catholic 25 February 2010