Part IV

Patrick Weston Joyce
1910

PART IV

THE PERIOD OF INSURRECTION, CONFISCATION, AND PLANTATION

1547-1695.

THERE were four great rebellions during this period:—the rebellion of Shane O'Neill; the Geraldine rebellion; the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill; and the rebellion of 1641; besides many smaller risings. And after all these came the War of the Revolution (625).

The causes of rebellion were mainly two:—First, the attempt to extend the Reformation to Ireland: Second, the Plantations, which though the consequence of some rebellions were the cause of others. These and other influences of less importance will be described in a general way in the next chapter, and in more detail in those that follow.

Whenever a rebellion took place, the invariable course of events may be briefly summed up as:—Rebellion, Defeat, Confiscation, Plantation.

The Plantations began immediately after the confiscation of Leix and Offaly (410) and continued almost without a break during the whole of this period, that is for a century and a half.