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1690 William and the Boyne

by Dr. Ian Adamson

The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is one of those events in Irish history which has retained such an emotive potency it still impacts upon the history of today. Yet for all the importance accorded the battle, popular knowledge of the period and the personalities involved remains remarkably superficial, and slogans and stereotypes have substituted for real understanding. This book attempts to remove much of the obscurity by exploring the Battle of the Boyne and its main protagonists in a broader context, especially its European dimension. By so doing the author hopes to challenge many popular assumptions held about the Boyne. He shows that it is quite erroneous to view the battle as simply a case of Irish Protestantism vanquishing Irish Catholicism, or just another episode in the struggle between ‘Planter’ and ‘Gael’, or even to consider it a
specifically ‘Irish’ confrontation. The reality, he reveals, is much more complex. Just as importantly, by presenting a broader perspective to the battle, the author also hopes to dilute some of its
power to inflame sectarian passions, and allow the citizens of Ulster to integrate that period of their history less emotively - and less divisively - into their rich historical inheritance. Such an integration, he believes, is long overdue, for the people of Ulster have suffered too much and too long for their past History.