Making of the Irish Protestant Ascendancy

The life and political career of William Conolly, a key figure in the establishment of the eighteenth century protestant ascendancy in Ireland.William Conolly (1662-1729) was one of the most powerful Irish political figures of his day. As a politician, in the years 1715-29 simultaneously Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, Chief Commissioner of the Revenue, Lord Justice, and Privy Councillor, he made significant contributions to the role of the Irish parliament in Irish life, to the establishment of a more efficient government bureaucracy, and to the emergence of a constructive strain of patriotism. In addition, he was a patron of architects, contributing significantly to the fashioning of Georgian Dublin, and building his own Palladian mansion at Castletown, nowadays one of the most frequently visited Irish historic properties. His rise to wealth and eminence from very humble beginnings and a Catholic background also illustrates the permeability of Irish society. Conolly's career reflects the development of the early Georgian Irish political,cultural and ideological nation, in all its complexities and contradictions. PATRICK WALSH is an IRCHSS Government of Ireland CARA mobility fellow jointly affiliated with University College London and University College Dublin. .

Excellently researched, shrewdly organised, and intellectually rigorous, it is a valuable contribution to the scholarship of eighteenth-century state building in Britain and Ireland., A nuanced and significant view of Conolly's political career., A book that convincingly places Connolly's social and economic activities in the context of the political world he all but dominated., [An] excellent study [...] this is the work of a skilled historian., Succeeds magnificently in reconstructing the life and career of an arriviste politician who rose to a level of political dominance that allowed a contemporary to refer to him as Ireland's 'prime minister'.