The past as a bucket of ashes? CIRCLE:a Calendar of IRish Chancery LEtters, c. 1244-1509

‘I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes’, wrote the American poet Carl Sandberg. For Irish historians this line rings true quite literally. The explosion that ripped through […]

Three editors over four decades!

The current phase of the CIRCLE project began in 2008 with funding from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. But in fact the Irish Chancery Project […]

‘Pirates in our channel’ the Cromwellian navy in Ireland, 1649–53

In the 1630s King Charles I devoted considerable resources to increasing the strength of the royal navy by building large ships such as the Sovereign of the Seas. In 1642, […]

Prince Rupert’s royalist navy blockaded at Kinsale

In 1648 a revolt broke out among the fleet stationed in the Downs and a number of ships defected to the royalists in Holland. Prince Rupert (right), the king’s nephew […]

Cromwell arrives in Ireland

On 13 August 1649 Oliver Cromwell and a flotilla of around 35 ships sailed from Milford Haven to Dublin. Cromwell spent most of the voyage being seasick. A second, larger […]