Declan Mills. Elizabethan Ireland: the graveyard of ambition or land of political opportunity by History Hub published on 2014-09-25T15:24:47Z Recording of a paper by Declan Mills (University of Limerick) at the 2014 Tudor and Stuart Ireland Conference. About the paper: Elizabethan Ireland: the graveyard of ambition or land of political opportunity This paper will examine the ways in which Elizabethan courtiers, politicians and administrators viewed Ireland and the prospect of having to work in Ireland. This paper will argue that despite the general consensus that Ireland was too uncivilised and too far from the Court to be considered useful to one's career, to the point where some nobles viewed a posting in Ireland as virtual exile, many of the senior figures who were given posts on the island got them for practical, rather than political reasons. It will also show that, even though for some people, such as Lord Grey de Wilton and the 2nd earl of Essex, Ireland would prove to be the graveyard of ambition, for others, particularly less senior figures such as Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, it would be a land of personal and political opportunity. This paper will also touch on the ways in which the Irish experiences of people such as Spenser and the Sidneys could have coloured their attitudes on other political matters, particularly the possibility of Elizabeth marrying a Catholic prince. The 2014 Tudor and Stuart Ireland conference was generously supported by UCD School of History and Archives, UCD Research, Marsh's Library, Graduate Studies at NUI Maynooth, and the Department of History at NUI Maynooth. Recorded for podcasting by Real Smart Media (https://soundcloud.com/real-smart-media) for History Hub. Genre irish
