Religion, Rebellion and Violence: Book Launch

Join KCL's Centre for Early Modern Studies to celebrate the launch of Dr. Joan Redmond’s first monograph, Religion, Rebellion and Violence in Ireland, c. 1603-1649 (Cambridge University Press). This book examines religious violence in seventeenth-century Ireland, focusing on the 1641 Rebellion. The book will be commented on by Prof. John Morrill, Prof. Laura Gowing (KCL), and Prof. Paul Readman (KCL).

The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Book Description

While religion has always seemed to be a constant force in Irish history, this study exposes how the period between 1603 and 1649 cemented sectarian division and conflict, with long-lasting legacies for both Ireland and Britain. This is the first in-depth investigation of the role of religious violence in seventeenth-century Ireland, focusing particularly on the cataclysmic 1641 Rebellion. Joan Redmond traces the growing importance of religious division in Irish society, especially through the impact of British colonial projects, such as the Ulster plantation, and religion's role in early modern imperialism more widely. Redmond explores how religion increasingly became the dominant force in unrest, examining how symbols such as Bibles, churches and the clergy became targets before and during the 1641 Rebellion. Throughout, Ireland is considered in relation to both Europe and the British Atlantic, highlighting its position between two worlds in the seventeenth century.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Joan Redmond is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern British History at King’s College London. She is a historian of early modern Ireland and Britain, with particular interests in religion, violence, rebellion and conflict, ethnicity and identity, and the early British empire.

Her first monograph, Religion, Rebellion and Violence in Ireland, c. 1603-1649 (Cambridge University Press) addresses the important shaping role of religion in Irish violence in the first half of the seventeenth century, and its intersections with colonialism, ethnic identities and political upheaval.

Part of Oxford University Press’s ‘A Very Short Introduction’ series, her next project is the short book, Stuart Britain and Ireland: A Very Short Introduction.

In addition to these, she has published on topics including memory, martyrology, gender, as well as on many aspects of Irish and British religious and conflict histories of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

She holds a BA in History and Political Science from Trinity College Dublin, an MPhil in Early Modern History from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in History also from the University of Cambridge. She first joined King’s in 2016.