Raina Howe. Historical perspectives of an early modern Irish environment by History Hub

'Tudor Wasteland or Gaelic Fásach? Historical perspectives of an early modern Irish environment' by Raina Howe (National University of Ireland Galway).

The early modern environment of Ireland has been a territory for debate for antiquarians and Tudor historians alike for the past several centuries. In many instances, historians have adopted a Tudor perception of the Gaelic environment as a formidable, untamed and densely wooded wasteland. The Tudor perspective has become, in essence, the contemporary perspective of how to view early modern Ireland’s environment. How Ireland could have been as heavily wooded as the Tudor paper trail suggests provokes questions about how the Irish managed their woodlands. This paper addresses some of the inconsistencies and oversimplifications within the Tudor perspective. It also attempts to piece together an early modern Irish perspective of how the Irish might have viewed these so-called wastelands, and for what purpose they had in keeping them.

The 6th Annual Tudor & Stuart Ireland Interdisciplinary Conference took place at NUI Galway in August, 2016. The conference was generously supported by: an NUI Galway President's Award for Research Excellence (awarded to Prof. Steven Ellis); the Moore Institute, NUI Galway; the Discipline of History, NUI Galway and the Society for Renaissance Studies.

As in previous years the majority of papers were recorded for podcasting by https://soundcloud.com/real-smart-media in association with www.historyhub.ie. There are now more than 140 podcasts from previous Tudor and Stuart Ireland conferences freely available. To access this archive go to www.historyhub.ie/podcasts or visit tudorstuartireland.com