Abstract
This book accomplishes the admirable feat of both illuminating a topic that remains obscure and using well-known sources in surprisingly new ways. Although the links between early modern Ireland and Spain have benefited from the meticulous work of Óscar Recio Morales, Enrique Garcia Hernán, and other efforts emanating from the Irish in Europe Project at Maynooth, we are far from understanding the topic in its full depth and complexity. O’Connor (who runs the aforementioned project) gets us a little closer by exploiting a range of inquisitorial records from several important Iberian archives and a range of other documents in Europe and America. As an added bonus, his discussion of connections between the Inquisition and Irish migrants also sheds light on the institution itself and its place in the Spanish Habsburg Empire.
The subcutaneous description of Irish experiences provided here emerges out of a traditional chronological structure. Section I deals with a 16th-century context defined by the ambiguities inherent amid Hispano-British tensions and warfare leading up to the Armada. Section II deals with the 17th century framed by early Anglo-Spanish peace and lingering tensions, as well as the entrenchment of previous and new Irish migrants within the Spanish imperial system. Part III deals with the 18th century within the context of the War of Spanish Succession and the ascent of the Bourbon dynasty. In each of these sections, O’Connor deals primarily with the stories of merchants, priests, and soldiers who formed the core of the Irish seeking entrance into Spain and its empire. Over time, the general trajectory is toward greater integration and a diversification of activities on the ground. In highlighting these trends, O’Connor is most compelling when he surveys the ways in which the Irish had become part of the Spanish empire as pirates, missionaries, and high level clerics in the New World. His treatment of the 18th century is also particularly insightful, showing how the Spanish system absorbed a greater Irish military presence, the deeper entrenchment of Irish merchants in local and international trade, and how the Irish became key players in attempts at Spanish industrial innovation.
The forms of Irish embeddedness depended largely on the needs and desires of the host culture. Priests became necessary to ecclesiastical institutions, in part because they were needed to facilitate the conversion and examination of other foreigners. Soldiers were needed to fulfill military needs, especially in times of conflict (such as the War of Spanish Succession). By the 18th century, the Irish provided manpower and skills in certain industries as Spain looked north to effectuate Bourbon modernization schemes amid apparent Spanish decline. During that same time, Irish merchants became facilitators of hispano-British trade, filling a vacuum left behind by the English during the Anglo-Spanish war. Just as Irish migrants became part of various hispanic landscapes, they remain connectors with a greater world, opening or maintaining lines of communications between British and Spanish spheres that were often at odds.
This book favors complexity. O’Connor argues that we should think of migrants as ‘individuals and groups in flight from, yet umbilically attached to, their local and international catalysts’ (p. 201). The liminality of migration is brilliantly dealt with in the book’s final chapter concerning women. Here the experiences born of the weak and sometimes marginal position determined by gender in early modern society provides a prism through which to better observe the processes (and complications of) incorporation and the pull of home. His discussion sheds light on the nature of strife within migrant communities and the ways in which women (who were often in the eye of various inquisitorial storms) found themselves victims and possible benefactors of the tight social networks to which they belonged. Their ability to gain acceptance (by means of the Inquisition) or face condemnation often depended on their self-advocacy within network patterns extended or re-created from back home.
By using inquisitorial records, O’Connor is able to provide a clearer view of how the Inquisition became a facilitator of Irish integration and how Irish communities could be established and maintained outside of Ireland. In part because inquisitorial records are documents resulting of conflict and tension, we do not only see the continuation of cultural/religious strife from Ireland in Spain, but also the competition for resources in Spain. The Inquisition became a key institution by which Irish (of whom suspicions lingered for being British) could be formally accepted. For this to happen, the Inquisition had to establish the Catholic bona fides of migrants or formally convert them from heresy. O’Connor suggests that the ease with which the latter could be achieved had a lot to do with political pressures. Just as many migrants were more than willing to play religious chameleons, so were Inquisitors willing to play along when the interests of state required leniency.
If there is a quibble to be had with this book, it would be the somewhat misleading title. Although the inquisitorial documents provide special access to ‘Irish voices,’ O’Connor rarely allows the many personalities in the book to speak for themselves, thereby cutting short the possibility of digging deeper into individual motivations and perceptions of reality. Doing more of this would have helped enliven important discussions of key issues such as conversion. There is often something of an arbitrary feel to the discussion of the topic on both the Irish and Spanish sides. Without more textual evidence it is hard for the reader to assess whether or not changing faiths was a matter of pragmatism or belief (or both). The tendency to muffle voices also limits the extent to which the reader can identify the Irishness of the subject at hand. Although we get a sense of how important Irish networks remained within the hispanic orbit, it is often unclear how belonging to that group informed behaviors and decisions and how, over time, identity politics may have changed, especially as migrants became more removed from their native culture.
Still, on the level of networks and general patterns, this is a very important book that helps establish a framework for future research. It is without a doubt a must-read for students of early modern history and the history of migration more generally.