I greatly enjoyed the first edition of this book when I read it two years ago, and the second edition is even better. To the penetrating insights and lucid descriptions of the earlier version, there are added a couple of extra chapters at the beginning looking at the relationship of the Old English nobles of Ireland to the Yorkist v Lancaster/Tudor struggles in the other parts of the realm – I had not really grasped it, but the Fitzgeralds (earls of Kildare and Desmond) were basically Yorkist (Lambert Simnel was crowned as King Richard IV in Christ Church cathedral in Dublin) while the Butler easrls of Ormond were basically Lancastrians and then Tudor supporters. This balance was upset by Henry VII’s partnership with the Earl of Kildare once the Simnel unpleasantness was over, but their sons fell out in 1534. The rivalry between the two families continues through to Elizabeth’s court, where the Fitzgeralds were aligned with the Duke of Norfolk and the Butlers with Essex.
Ellis sticks to his original conclusion, that the “surrender and regrant” policy probably could have worked given time, but Henry VIII lost interest, and from then on the question became one of how much money and how many soldiers to throw at the Irish wars. (In the course of the 1590s, for instance, 3% of the total population of Wales had been conscripted to fight in Ireland.) Lots more interesting background also on the perpetual lack of money of the Irish government institutions, and on the court system (though that was not quite as clear as I needed it to be), and many more tips for future and wider reading.
