Desmond Keenan 
Eighteenth Century Ireland 1703-1800 Society and History 

This book presents a picture of Ireland in the 18th century from 1702 to 1800, the era of the so-called Protestant Ascendancy and the Penal Laws. It deals with Irish Society, and Irish history of that period. Every effort has been made to remove the traditional distortions of Catholic nationalist propaganda. Irish Protestants are regarded as Irishmen and their achievements are regarded as Irish achievements. The darker sides of the period are not ignored.

About the author

The author was born in Northern Ireland, studied economics and sociology at The Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He completed a doctoral thesis on the Catholic Church in Ireland in the early nineteenth century. During post-doctoral research in the British Newspaper Library in London (UK) he came to realise how badly political propaganda had distorted the writing of Irish history. In his books he uses frameworks from archaeology, sociology and economics to arrive at a balanced and neutral perspective.