Age of atrocity

Violence and political conflict in early modern Ireland

David Edwards, Clodagh Tait & Padraig Lenihan, editors

This book examines one of the bloodiest epochs in Irish history. Part one covers the 16th century, revealing how efforts by the Tudor monarchy to curb the powers of the autonomous Irish lords degenerated into a bitter cultural and sectarian conflict characterized by summary killings and massacres. The second part pays particular attention to the 1641 rebellion and the Confederate Wars.

David Edwards, who lectures in University College Cork, is the author of The Ormond Lordship in County Kilkenny, 1515–1642 (FCP, 2003). Clodagh Tait lectures in History in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. She is the author of Death, Burial and Commemoration in Ireland, 1550–1650 (Hampshire, 2002). Padraig Lenihan recently retired from the University of Galway. He has written many well-received books and articles on Irish and European warfare in the period 1641–1748 and his most recent publication is Siege in Ireland, 1641-53 (FCP, 2025).