Irish History: Antiquity, Conquest and Incomplete Liberty

Abstract

It has been well known that Burke was a supporter of the Irish revisionist historians of his day, but his own views on Irish history are often neglected. Burke was different from the Irish patriots of the late eighteenth century in his lesser attention to the historical origins of the Irish legislature. His greater attention within Irish history was more in the realm of religious issues, that is, the history of the Protestant persecutions of the Catholics, especially after 1688–9. Burke’s views on Irish history helped him to shape his own conception of religions, civilisation and the Enlightenment.