In a survey of the historiography of early modern Ireland, it might appear quite justifiable to dismiss anything written before the scientifically-minded nineteenth century. To do so, however, would be to erode from that history the nuances that have overlain all thinking about Ireland and particularly the successive phases in which historical writers were dominated by one presupposition or another. Nor would it seem justifiable to omit an analysis of the changing concepts in historical writing and the steps in the elaboration of a methodology. Reference was made in chapter five to some of the main contemporary writers who sometimes included an account of the events of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in their writings. This chapter concentrates on interpretations since 1641 with particular reference to the use made of documentary sources. It begins with a brief introductory account of Irish historiography before that date.

THE PRE-RENAISSANCE TRADITION

Gaelic literature looked back to a long tradition in which few changes can be detected over centuries. In Gaelic Ireland there was a tacit ignoring of Hiberno-Norman civilisation. Until the end of the sixteenth century the writers were concerned with the fortunes of the families who were their patrons. References beyond the Gaelic sphere were almost accidental. Irish learning was essentially concerned with people, with families, with the genealogies regarded as the title deeds of rulers, with poetry in their honour, with annals associated with centres of learning and religion, with the history of persons and institutions, with individual parts of the Gaelic sphere, but never with the history of Ireland as we understand it today.