The Irish Parliament, 1613-89: The Evolution of a Colonial Institution - Paperback

by Coleman A. Dennehy (Author)

The Irish parliament was both the scene of frequent political battles and an important administrative and legal element of the state machinery of early modern Ireland. This institutional study looks at how parliament dispatched its business on a day-to-day basis. It takes in major areas of responsibility such as creating law, delivering justice, conversing with the executive and administering parliamentary privilege. Its ultimate aim is to present the Irish parliament as one of many such representative assemblies emerging from the feudal state and into the modern world, with a changing set of responsibilities that would inevitably transform the institution and how it saw both itself and the other political assemblies of the day.

Back Jacket

This legal and administrative history of the Irish parliament eschews a chronological, political or thematic approach, focusing instead on how the institution undertook its work and dispatched the business put before it.

Structured around the primary functions of the parliament, the book examines the work of listening to grievances and administering justice, the making of laws, the role of officers and servants, and the management of parliamentary privilege. It looks at how these functions and responsibilities developed over time, situating parliament within the administrative and legal history of Ireland. It also puts the Irish parliament firmly within the larger European parliamentary tradition, particularly the colonial system of government of the early modern English world. While never rejecting the importance of parliamentary politics or local representation at the political core of the kingdom, the book attempts to understand parliament when politics is not the sole concern.

Based on decades of research, The Irish parliament, 1613-89 is essential reading for students and scholars of early modern Ireland, administrative history and the legal and parliamentary history of the British Empire.

Author Biography

Coleman A. Dennehy is a Research Associate at the Humanities Institute at University College Dublin