This is a collection of essays with a new preface by Raymond Gillespie, highlighting some of the more significant contributions to Cavan history over the last decade.

This book charts the plantation town of Belturbet from its inception in the early seventeenth century up to the early eighteenth century. It was a period of profound change, destruction, and renewal, and was home to many remarkable people such as its founder, Sir Stephen Butler, and the famous Church of Ireland clergyman, John Richardson. As well as focusing on the formation of the town itself, this case study examines the experiences of the people of Belturbet during the initial settlement period, throughout the violence of the 1640s, and again later on in the century. The religious tensions evident in Belturbet and the sometimes unsuccessful attempts by the town corporation to impose its authority there are also discussed.

This is the first textbook on the history of modern Ireland to adopt a social history perspective. Written by an international team of leading scholars, it draws on a wide range of disciplinary approaches and consistently sets Irish developments in a wider European and global context.