Erin go bragh (and bragh and bragh…)

Because we just can’t get enough of Cromwell and the Irish:

Cunningham, John. “Divided Conquerors: The Rump Parliament, Cromwell’s Army and Ireland.” English Historical Review 129, no. 539 (August 2014): 830–61.

Abstract:

This article reassesses the relationship that existed in the period 1649–53 between war in Ireland and politics in England. Drawing upon a largely overlooked Irish army petition, it seeks to remedy an evident disconnect between the respective historiographies of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland on the one hand and the Rump Parliament on the other. The article reconstructs some of the various disputes over religion, authority and violence that undermined the unity of the English wartime regime in Ireland. It then charts the eventual spilling over of these disputes into Westminster politics, arguing that their impact on deteriorating army-parliament relations in the year prior to Oliver Cromwell’s expulsion of the Rump in April 1653 has not been fully appreciated. The key driver of these developments was John Weaver, a republican MP and commissioner for the civil government of Ireland. The article explains how his efforts both to place restraints on the excessive violence of the conquest and to exert civilian control over the military evolved, by 1652, into a determined campaign at Westminster to strengthen the powers of Ireland’s civil government and to limit the army’s share in the prospective Irish land settlement. Weaver’s campaign forced the army officers in Ireland to intervene at Westminster, thus placing increased pressure on the Rump Parliament. This reassessment also enables the early 1650s to be viewed more clearly as a key phase in the operation of the longer-term relationships of mutual influence that existed between Dublin and London in the seventeenth century.

Danes, Dutchmen and Teagues, oh my!

Wienand Drenth of British Army Lineages notifies us of a new book :

Galster, Kjeld Hald. Danish troops in the Williamite army in Ireland, 1689-91. Four Courts Press, 2012.

Abstract:

This unique account of the Williamite War in Ireland focuses on the Danish troops who fought on the Williamite side. Comprising fifteen per cent of William III’s army at the Battle of the Boyne, this Danish force was to play a crucial role in some of the key engagements of the Williamite War. The author, Kjeld Hald Galster, who has served with the Danish Royal Life Guards (whose predecessors played a key role at the Battle of Aughrim), follows the Danish troops through the course of their Irish campaign, and, using a wide variety of Danish and British sources, illuminates the leading personalities and key events of the war. Galster also examines the various military strategies pursued by the leaders on both sides, and shows to what extent the Principles of War, as they are understood today, relate to that military campaign.

Wienand gives a review of it at his blog.