HISTORY
Oliver Cromwell and his legacies: God’s Englishman or God’s Executioner?
TERM 3: FOCUS ON HN366
Tuesday
John Gibney
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658): in England he led the forces of parliament during the Civil War and was blamed for the execution of King Charles I; in Ireland, his name is synonymous with a brutal conquest that shaped it for centuries.
This interactive course is meant to explore the life, times, and legacies of one of the most controversial figures in British and Irish history. It will begin by looking at Cromwell’s life and career against the backdrop of the early seventeenth-century in both islands, and the course will then concentrate on a number of key themes: Cromwell’s role in the ‘Wars of the Three Kingdoms’ in the 1640s and the Puritan revolution of the 1650s; his role in the conquest of Ireland and the subsequent land confiscations, along with their implications for Ireland’s later history; the very different ways that Cromwell has been viewed in Britain and Ireland in the centuries after his death (and why); and finally, the course will conclude with a walking tour designed to explore what traces of Cromwell and his time can still be found in the Dublin of today.
| BELFIELD | ||
| 5 Tuesdays | April 16, 23, 30, May 7, 14 | 7.30pm - 9.30pm |
| 1 Saturday | May 18 | 11.00am - 1.00pm |
| FEE: €115 | Print Open Learning Application Form 2012.13 or ring (01) 716-7123 for Laser/credit card payment |
Tutor Bio :
John Gibney is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and has been a researcher at both the University of Notre Dame and NUI Galway. He is the author of Ireland and the Popish Plot (Palgrave, 2008) and was a contributor to the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Originally from Kilbarrack in north Dublin, he has worked in heritage tourism in the city since 2001.
Provisional list of key topics to be covered
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Introduction: Cromwell’s world, 1599-1641 (Tuesday 15 April 2013)
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The Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Puritan revolution, 1641-1658
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The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, 1649-1653
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Cromwellian Ireland, 1653-1691
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Hero or villain? Cromwell and the judgments of posterity
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Walk: Cromwellian and Puritan Dublin -Saturday 18 May 2013
Who is the course for?
Anyone with an interest in British and/or Irish history from the seventeenth-century onwards
Reading List:
The following is a selection of recommended texts for those interested in reading further around the course content. We advise that you do not buy books in advance of the course as your tutor will discuss the list and suggest the most relevant reading for particular interests.
A detailed reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course, but here are some more general works that should be easily available:
John Morrill, Oliver Cromwell (Oxford, 2007).
[The same author also wrote a very good entry on Cromwell, concentrating on his connections with Ireland, in the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography, which is widely available throughout the public library system.]
Christopher Hill, God’s Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution (London, 1970
Micheál Ó Siochrú, God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland(London, 2008)
Blair Worden, The English Civil Wars, 1640-1660 (London, 2010).
