Commodities and the Import Trade in Early Plantation Ulster

As a new wave of British settlers moved into Ulster following the plantation there in the early seventeenth century, ports, towns, markets and fairs were both established and further developed. The survival of the port books for Londonderry, Coleraine, Carrickfergus and the Lecale ports of County Down for the years 1612–15 offers detailed information of goods imported into Ulster which affords us insights into the consumer habits and preferences of the British settlers now living in that province. While it was hoped by some that the introduction of a new market and trade culture would have a ‘civilising’ effect upon the Gaelic Irish, evidence of consumer preferences tells a somewhat different story, which a study of Ulster’s import trade and settler society in early Plantation Ulster can illustrate.

2. Roots

‘Roots’ recounts Clive Staples Lewis’s early life in a close-knit Christian family—his parents, Albert and Flora, and his brother, Warren—in County Down, Northern Ireland. His atheism was probably triggered by his mother’s death when he was not quite ten. His early schooling was much improved by his private tutor, William T. Kirkpatrick, who added dialectical precision to the rhetorical and argumentative disposition Lewis inherited from Albert. The impact of George MacDonald’s Phantastes on Lewis is highlighted, along with his service in World War I; his time as an undergraduate at Keble College, Oxford; his election to a fellowship at Magdalen College; his diary writing; and his conversion to Christianity.

The Tenant Right Agitation of 1849–50: Crisis and Confrontation on the Londonderry Estates in County Down

The numerous sales of landed property which took place under the aegis of Ireland’s Encumbered Estates Court are testimony to the critical blow dealt to the finances of Irish estates by the repeated failure of the potato crop in the 1840s. On the Londonderry estates in County Down, however, the critical moment did not occur until late 1850, and was brought about primarily by the activities of the Tenant League and not the fungus Phytophthora infestans. This chapter discusses the resulting management crisis, unparalleled in the career of an agent of twenty-two years standing, which was not amenable to solution by conventional methods.

Columbanus’s Ulster Education

This chapter looks at the context for Columbanus’s time at Bangor and in particular the possible influence on him of the British bishop Uinniau and his own abbot, Comgall. Uinniau’s network linked him with both the British Church of Gildas and the emerging Uí Néill dynasties, while Comgall was a member of the Cruithnian people of Antrim. By the time Columbanus came within their orbit, both men were located in the core territory of the kingdom of the Ulaid, in modern County Down. The chapter argues that the specifics of the location and personalities involved proved to be defining influences on Coumbanus’s development.

Chapter III

The Rev. Patrick Brontë is a native of the County Down in Ireland.* His father Hugh Brontë, was left an orphan at an early age. He came from the south to the north of the island, and settled in the parish of...