Danielle McCormack's The Stuart Restoration and the English in Ireland is a welcome addition to a surprisingly thin field of studies devoted to the Restoration period in Ireland and, indeed, the Restoration in the Three Kingdoms as a whole. Drawing from her dissertation completed at the European University Institute Florence in 2013, in this the book—though short at only 168 pages of text—McCormack delves deeply into the turbulent waters of post-Restoration political strife by focusing largely (though by no means exclusively) on the highly influential yet perpetually anxious position of the English in Ireland. This, in itself, proves something of an elusive category throughout the book: it elides more familiar categories of “Old English” and “New English,” as well as “Old Protestant” and “New Protestant” interests. The first of these pairings, made familiar some time ago through the work of Aidan Clarke and Nicholas Canny, was employed contemporaneously to distinguish “recent” English (largely Protestant) settlers in Ireland, largely under the Elizabethan regime, from their Anglo-Norman, and usually Catholic, counterparts. The second of these—less commonly employed but nonetheless present in the work of Sean Connolly and Toby Barnard—separates the “low church” Calvinists who adhered to the Church of Ireland from the “innovators” of the Cromwellian invasion and Interregnum settlement. The broad group to which McCormack turns—the “English in Ireland”—is thus one made all the more interesting for its ambiguities and indefinite sense of unity beyond a common distrust of the Gaelic or “native” Irish.

Over six broadly thematic chapters, McCormack largely focuses on what one might call the period of “unsettlement” that spanned the early stages of the Dublin Convention in 1659–60 to the forced resignation of James Butler, duke of Ormond and lord lieutenant of Ireland, in 1669. The first chapter, which puts forward a “political and mental map” of Ireland at the outset of this period, is essentially an historiographical overview, positioning the original research which follows in relation to important work by Toby Barnard, Nicholas Canny, Aidan Clarke, Sean Connolly, and others whose works have helped to define the 1640s and 1650s in Ireland. Striking here is a particular effort on McCormack's part to contend with Anne Creighton's 2000 dissertation on the Catholic interest in Restoration Irish politics which, though an exceptional piece of original research deserving of publication, is given rather more attention throughout the book than many more seminal studies. Other works—for instance, Barnard's seminal A New Anatomy of Ireland (2003)—are notably absent from the discussion, despite McCormack's clear interest in the material and cultural worlds of her subjects.

In the chapters that follow McCormack attempts to chart the languages of discontent and loyalty through which the English in Ireland came to understand themselves as the realities of the Restoration came into view. Chapter topics range from specific figures (Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery in chapter 2) to detailed petitioning and legal procedure (chapter 3) and close readings of intellectual discourse (Sir William Dromville's “Declaration” in chapter 5). She grounds these chapters on an impressive foundation of original research gathered from across Irish and English repositories. Unsurprisingly, a number of key personalities emerge here, including Boyle; Butler; the Talbot family of Malahide; Father Peter Walsh; and Nicholas French, bishop of Ferns. Many of these have received detailed attention from historians already; however, the strength of McCormack's study lies in her balancing of these personalities across a wider political landscape, tracing their intellectual foundations while also maintaining a nuanced sense of their motives and contexts. Chapter 6, dealing with the particularities of establishing notions of Catholic loyalty, is particularly effective in this regard, showcasing McCormack's research at its best while also situating the Catholic-Protestant divide in shades of gray rather than black and white.

On occasion, the otherwise meticulous research falters. There are, for instance, a surprising number of points where, despite contentious assertions, no reference is made to the wider historiography or original research to support the claims. In some instances, this means that entire groups are spoken of as having “greeted” an event or as having reacted to policies in terms which risk lumping rather than comprehending them in greater depth. This is out of keeping with McCormack's subtlety elsewhere in the book. In terms of structure, the admirable approach of working thematically through the period rather than simply narrating these changes means that the argumentative line is occasionally obscured. Subsections within the chapters might have aided in ensuring that thematic shifts were clearly demarcated and chronological variation justified.

McCormack's account is thorough and detailed throughout and certainly brings to light important issues that have so often been pushed aside by the greater attention afforded to the violence and dislocation of the “revolutionary” periods which surround it. The impression of Restoration Ireland that McCormack provides is of a society not necessarily pervaded by violence, but rather clinging to memories of it and perpetually concerned with its reappearance (whether genuinely or to exploit it). It is, as such, a poignant and timely book.