History of Ireland (1536–1691)
Ireland during the period of 1536–1691 saw the first full conquest of the island by England and its colonisation with mostly Protestant settlers from Great Britain. This would eventually establish two central themes in future Irish history:
subordination of the country to London-based governments and sectarian animosity between Catholics and Protestants. The period saw Irish society outside of the Pale transform from a locally driven, intertribal, clan-based Gaelic structure to a centralised, monarchical, state-governed society, similar to those found elsewhere in Europe. The period is bounded by the dates 1536, when King Henry VIII deposed the FitzGerald dynasty as Lords Deputies of Ireland, and 1691, when the Catholic Jacobites surrendered at Limerick, thus confirming Protestant dominance in Ireland. This is sometimes called the early modern period.
Henry VIII King of England and Ireland, who founded the Kingdom of Ireland and began the English re-conquest of the country, by Hans Holbein the Younger
Cahir Castle – besieged repeatedly in this period
After Irish Catholic rebellion and civil war, Oliver Cromwell, on behalf of the English Commonwealth, re-conquered Ireland between 1649 and 1651. Under his government, landownership in Ireland passed overwhelmingly to Protestant colonists
James VII and II Irish Catholics, known as Jacobites, fought for James in 1689–91, but they failed to restore him to the throne of Ireland, England and Scotland
The Desmond Rebellions occurred in 1569–1573 and 1579–1583 in the Irish province of Munster. They were rebellions by the Earl of Desmond, the head of the FitzGerald dynasty in Munster, and his followers, the Geraldines and their allies, against the threat of the extension of the English government over the province. The rebellions were motivated primarily by the desire to maintain the independence of feudal lords from their monarch but also had an element of religious antagonism between Catholic Geraldines and the Protestant English state. They culminated in the destruction of the Desmond dynasty and the plantation or colonisation of Munster with English Protestant settlers. 'Desmond' is the Anglicisation of the Irish Deasmumhain, meaning 'South Munster'.
Clothing of Irish women and men. c. 1575.
Carrigafoyle Castle