Guided Tours Ireland

09/02/2025

From Faber - "This is the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney’s poetry. It encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime as well as the small number that appeared after his death."

09/02/2025

04/02/2025

NEW BOOK: 'Plantation Churches: Places of Worship in Early Seventeenth-century Ulster' by William Roulston and Tom McNeill

PRE-ORDER OFFER: Order this book (Expected publication date: 01 May 2025) for only £19.99! https://ulsterhistoricalfoundation.com/shop/products/plantation-churches

Not only was religious belief crucial to the people of early modern Europe, but parish communities lay at the heart of all social organisation. However, much of the story of Plantation Ulster has been based on secular themes of land grants, estates and settlement. This book sets out to redress the balance by examining the religious policy and the practical organisation of the Church during a period of enormous change.

The first major issue that the authorities faced was whether they should continue with the same parishes and bishoprics they had inherited from the medieval Church, or re-cast them to match their new regime. They settled for continuity but then faced similar questions over their places of worship. Where should the church be sited? On the pre-Reformation site or at a different location? Who should pay for it? The prominent members of the Reformed Church were not always agreed on the form of worship to be followed so who should dictate the arrangements for this?

Through a careful examination of both the documentary evidence and the physical remains, this study shows how the foundations for the new Church were laid and how the places of worship constructed in the early 1600s went on to dictate the pattern of church building into the twentieth century. The book also considers the locations and settings in which Catholics in Ulster gathered for worship during the Plantation era as they sought to maintain a separate religious identity at a time of considerable upheaval.

Chapter Listing

1 The Medieval Inheritance

2 Protestant places of worship in Ulster 1600–41

3 Protestant Church Buildings in Plantation Ulster

4 Catholic Places of Worship in Early Seventeenth-century Ulster

5 Legacy

6 Appendix 1: The condition of churches in Armagh, Clogher, Derry, Kilmore and Raphoe dioceses in 1622

7 Appendix 2: The condition of churches in Down, Connor and Dromore dioceses in 1622

01/02/2025

21/01/2025

🎤JUST ANNOUNCED🎤

Van Morrison will perform two special hometown shows in Belfast next month https://tinyurl.com/2ass4ws8

20/01/2025

Once upon a time, there was an Irish man, an English man and a Scottish man.
They were all United at Manchester United and became The Trinity. I'm so proud of this club.🇾🇪

20/01/2025

20/01/2025

20/01/2025

20/01/2025

Four friends with a shared passion for adventure have taken full advantage of Northern Ireland’s cold snap this month, breaking a UK and Ireland-wide record with an igloo they built on the top of Slieve Donard.

20/01/2025

Film-maker, photographer and writer Bob Quinn has always refused to conform, but people seemed to love him for it, writes his son

20/01/2025

Clonmacnoise monastic site, County Offaly