This article examines Edmund Burke’s writings on the Catholic question, which span nearly four decades and "contain important evidence of the development of Burke’s ideas about the nature of law and obligation and the relationship between religion and the constitution". O’Flaherty discusses Burke’s long and passionate involvement in Irish politics, his association with Charles O’Conor and John Curry and their commitment to re-writing Irish history and his involvement with the Catholic case against the Penal Laws. He also considers Burke’s opposition to the Quebec Act and its implications concerning Irish catholics, his Tracts relating to Popery Laws, his role in the 1778 Relief Act, his dismissal of the term ‘Protestant ascendancy’ and the "political vocabulary of the ascendancy party", and his belief in the importance of the British constitution for Irish citizens. O’Flaherty concludes that "Burke’s thoughts on the Catholic question in his last years were affected... by an increasingly religious theme in his discussion of Catholicism, part of his general belief in the importance of religion as a counter-revolutionary force, but also evidence of the depth of his roots in Catholic Ireland of the eighteenth century".

Doyle, Thomas. "Jacobitism, Catholicism and the Irish Protestant Elite, 1700-1710." Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 28-59.

In the period from 1700-1710, formal and informal charges of Jacobitism against members of the Irish protestant élite were relatively common. This affected protestant churchmen, judges, students, Tories, and gentry — particularly the latter and especially if they were recent converts. According to Doyle, "Jacobitism was a convenient brush with which to tar one’s enemies, particularly those who…may have had genuine religious and conscientious qualms about the brushing aside of high Anglican nostrums of passive obedience and the divine right of kings". The distrustful nature of Irish protestant attitudes toward fellow protestants was in part due to the substantial numbers of protestant gentry who expressed both ambiguous attitudes towards the Williamite victory and ambivalence to the new Williamite regime. Doyle concludes : "What appeared as Jacobitism…was in a fact a mixture of realism, distaste for harsh and possibly counter-productive measures…and political opportunism".

Lowe, N. F. "James Barry, Mary Wollstonecraft and 1798." Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 60-76.

One of James Barry’s paintings, Portraits in the Character of Ulysses and a Companion, depicts Edmund Burke as Ulysses, motioning to his companion to be silent. From Barry’s point of view, the painting represents the deterioration of his relationship with the Burke; Burke had warned Barry that his radical beliefs and outspokenness would only gain him enemies, while Barry "objected to a political climate which imposed restrictions on free expression". As Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, Barry had achieved a high standing in English society and at the Academy. However, when he wrote his Letter to the Dilettanti Society defending fellow libertines Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, the Academicians were outraged and expelled him. Similarly, William Godwin’s tribute to Wollstonecraft, written shortly after her death, Memoirs of the Author of a Vindiction of the Rights of Women, was relentlessly attacked. The article discusses James Barry’s use of his paintings as political propaganda. "Barry’s paintings concealed a distinctive Irish sub-text that linked the ideal of liberty with republicanism and Catholicism, while English rule was linked to tyranny and suppression". Eight illustrations accompany the article.

Mac Craith, Mícheál. "Fingal : eipic thosaigh James Macpherson". Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 77-86.

In this article (which is in Irish), Mac Craith considers the vexed question of vernacular Gaelic influence on the pseudo-epic poetry of James MacPherson, especially on Fingal (1761). The author considers the work of other scholars, Donald Meek and Derek Thomson in particular, who have suggested the medieval Irish tale Cath Fionntrágha ("The battle of Ventry") as a possible source; Mac Craith goes on to draw particular attention to the ballad Turus Fhinn go Lochlann ("Finn’s journey to Norway") which provides material for one of the central episodes in Fingal, the story of Agendecca. He also points to the fact that this passage could be seen to contain a political message which would have been well understood in intellectual circles in Edinburgh in the late 1750s and early 1760s. MacPherson and his associates were non-Jacobite Scottish patriots who would have seen in the benign militarism of the epic the portrayal of an ideal; loyal local militia. Since the Cath Fionntrágha is known to have been used as a vehicle for contemporary political propaganda, it is likely that MacPherson would have been similarly drawn to use native sources for his epic to address the aspirations of his intellectual cohort during this troubled period.

Davies, Simon. "Irish Reactions to a French bestseller." Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 87-88.

This article offers a brief discussion of Irish reactions to the French bestseller, Les liaisons dangereuses (1782). The 1784 English translation was pirated and printed in Dublin, and became popular in at least one Irish town. The novel’s popularity in Newry suggests "a ‘cosmopolitan outlook’ as the inhabitants of even provincial towns in Ireland wished to keep abreast of the cultural scene in Europe, particularly the prestigious culture of France".

Carey, Daniel. "Swift Among The Freethinkers." Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 89-99.

Jonathan Swift’s ongoing ‘literary battles’ with freethinkers impelled him to use a variety of rhetorical strategies to combat the threat which freethinkers posed to Anglican orthodoxy and to Swift’s political position as a Tory. This article assesses the successes and failures of Swift’s strategies, supporting the idea that Swift’s voice achieved its greatest impact and victory over his opponent when assuming the "identity of a satirised narrator". Carey analyses Swift’s attacks on his freethinking opponents, "the unholy trio" of Toland, Tindal and Collins. In response to complaints about church mysteries, Swift composed his ‘Sermon on the Trinity’, a polemic delivered in his own voice, launching an ad hominem attack on freethinkers : "The slightly scattered nature of his objections and replies in the sermon indicates the vulnerability of Swift’s position, open to attack by opponents". The article also looks in detail at Swift’s more successful attacks on freethinking, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity and Mr C[olli]ns’s Discourse of Free-Thinking put into plain English by way of Abstract for the Use of the Poor.

Caffentzis, C. George. "Why Did Berkeley’s Bank Fail? Money and Libertinism in Eighteenth-Century Ireland." Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 100-115.

Bishop George Berkeley’s proposal for a National Bank of Ireland received "some notoriety in the history of economic thought" after it was published in The Querist in three parts between 1735 and 1737. His proposal was structured on the theory that the bank would be operated by the Irish legislature and would therefore be truly ‘national’. This article examines the main opponents to the scheme and the political barriers that caused the defeat of Berkeley’s bank proposal, which failed even to be discussed in the Irish Parliament. The special relationship between private bankers and parliamentarians involved a situation where they were "in each others’ pockets", and private banks would have been "crowded out" by a National Bank. Not only was Berkeley’s bank doomed by the private bankers and parliament, but also by Irish patriots who rejected any proposal to improve the economy of Ireland on the basis that such improvement would only give the British more opportunity to oppress Ireland. At the same time, the libertines rejected it on the basis that such a ‘financial machine’ could not operate without corruption or private gain. In return, Berkeley delivered his Discourse to the Magistrates (1737-38), which attacked libertarian freethinking and satanic worshipping clubs such as the Blasters and Hellfire Clubs in Dublin.

Reece, Bob. "Irish Anticipations of Botany Bay." Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 116-136.

In 1786, with the need for an alternative to trans-Atlantic transport of convicts from Britain to America, the British government announced plans for the establishment of a convict settlement in Botany Bay, New South Wales. The Dublin newspapers had anticipated the development of a settlement for quite some time, and reports in favour of shipping convicts to Botany Bay appeared in the pages of popular publications such as the Freeman’s Journal and the Hibernian Journal. This article discusses the Dublin press’s initial enthusiasm for the shipment of Irish convicts to Botany Bay. It was asserted that such settlements would not only ease the strain on the city’s gaols, but would also favour British shipping : an arrangement was proposed with the East India Company which would provide that "after unloading their convicts the ships would carry home tea from China at £10 per ton". The article quotes many of the enthusiastic – and satirical – anticipations of the transportation of Irish felons to Australia. However, enthusiasm for the scheme had evaporated by the time the first Irish convicts finally embarked for Botany Bay at the Cove of Cork 1791, and the event went unnoticed by most newspapers.

Review Article :

Barnard, T. C. "The Gentrification of Eighteenth-Century Ireland". Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr 12 (1997) : 137-55.

This article assesses the contribution to the study of eighteenth-century Ireland of Dr Kevin Whelan, whom the author characterises as "one of the liveliest writers on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland" to have emerged in recent years. Barnard praises Whelan’s many contributions to the field, particularly whose which "display his sensitivity to place". However, Barnard takes Whelan to task for using testimony and concepts "which will not always carry the load of argument which they are asked to bear" and gives a number of examples to back up this criticism. He also suggests that Whelan under-estimates the importance of religion in the culture of eighteenth-century Ireland and comments favourably on the work of other scholars who have recognised this importance. Barnard is also uneasy about some aspects of Whelan’s analysis of the catholic "underground gentry" of eighteenth-century Ireland and he suggests that some of Whelan’s conclusions are premature; among other things, the way the Irish defined the concept of "gentry" is more complex than Whelan suggests, and Barnard’s view is that, in general, more work has to be done on such matters before some of Whelan’s conclusions can be fully accepted.

Reviews :

Neal Garnham, The Courts, Crime and the Criminal Law in Ireland, 1692-1760 (W.N. Osborough)

John A. Murphy (ed.), The French are in the Bay : the expedition to Bantry Bay 1796 (Ruan O’Donnell)

Mary Lyons (ed.), The Memoirs of Mrs. Leeson, Madam 1727-1797 (Siobhán Kilfeather)

Daire Keogh (ed.), The Mighty Wave, the 1798 Rebellion in Wexford (Ruan O’Donnell)

James Kelly, ‘That damn’d thing called honour’ : Duelling in Ireland, 1570-1860 (David Dickson)

Vincent J. McNally, Reform, Revolution and Reaction : Archbishop John Thomas Troy and the Catholic Church in Ireland, 1787-1817 (Hugh Fenning)

W.J. McCormack, The Pamphlet Debate on the Union between Britain and Ireland, 1797-1800 (James Kelly)

Patrick Fagan, Divided loyalties : the question of an oath for Irish Catholics in the eighteenth century (James Kelly)

Short Notices :

Ian Harris (ed.), Edmund Burke’s Pre-Revolutionary Writings (E. O’Flaherty)

John Killen, An Index to The Microscope and the Belfast Literary Journal (J. Kelly)

Gerard Long, Books Beyond the Pale (T.C. Barnard)

James Kelly, Henry Grattan (E. O’Flaherty)