Although they had many grievances, being, almost without exception, Catholics, the Lords of the Pale, and most of the Anglo-Irish nobility and gentry elsewhere at first hesitated to join the revolt. On their treatment by the Government authorities their future action would, to a great extent, depend. The Lord Justices, by so wording their first Proclamation as to make it appear that they considered the conspiracy as one of the " Irish Papists " in general; by receiving with marked coldness the ... Read More

Above:Picture of English peasants laborate calculations were made of the rate at which the colony might be expected to increase, but these were all falsified by the event. It was found easy enough to induce a sufficient number of enterprising gentlemen to take up the lands, but a supply of English peasants willing to exchange the peace and security of their own country for the unknown perils of a " barbarous " land was not so easily forthcoming. Frequently, too, the ... Read More