James Sheridan

PhD Student

Biography

I graduated from Trinity with a BA in History. I started my PhD in the autumn of 2011 under the supervision of Professor Ciaran Brady.

Research

‘The Hydra's Den’. Ulster Society and Politics Transformed 1567-76.

My thesis examines the state of Ulster from the murder of Shane O'Neill 1567 to the death of Walter Devereux in 1576. During the mid-sixteenth century Gaelic Ulster remained for the most part divided among largely fractious Irish lordships ruled by various septs, but the English crown and government began to exert some control over these Gaelic lordships. This involved attempted plantations in east Ulster by Thomas Smith in 1572 and by the earl of Essex from 1573 to 1575, as well as semi-continuous warfare across the province. The central question of my thesis is to understand how, when pitted against the military, economic and political might of the English crown, the divided Gaelic lordships sought to redefine themselves in relation to both their traditional Gaelic status and in relation to the evolving world in which they found themselves.