Nicholas Canny

Nicholas Patrick Canny(born 1944) is anIrishhistorian and academicspecializing in early modern Irish history. He has been a lecturer in Irish history at theUniversity of Galwaysince 1972 and professor there from 1979 to 2011. He is Emeritus Professor of History,University of Galway.

Biography

Born atClifdenon 4 January 1944 to Cecil Canny and Helen Joyce, he was educated atKilfenoranational school,St. Flannan's College,Ennis,and University College Galway (now theUniversity of Galway) from where he graduated with a BA in 1964, and anM.A.in 1967. Research student at theInstitute of Historical Research,University of London,1969–70, and graduated PhD from theUniversity of Pennsylvaniain 1971.

Since the mid-1970s, Canny has been a leading authority on early modern Irish history. He was a lecturer in Irish history at University of Galway from 1972 and professor there from 1979 to 2011. His first paper was published in 1970 and focused onHugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyroneand in the subsequent years additional examinations of GaelicUlsterfollowed. His 1974 O'Donnell lecture (published in 1975),The formation of theOld-Englishelite in Ireland,was a ground breaking study of that community. It was, however, his 1976 studyThe Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: a Pattern Established, 1565–76that brought him to international attention. This book built on his PhD studies in the United States. He is the only person to have won the Irish Historical Research Prize on two occasions, in 1976 for the above book and in 2003 forMaking Ireland British 1580–1650.

In 1967 Canny was awarded theFord Foundationfellowship to travel to the United States and carry out a PhD in History in theUniversity of Pennsylvania.He completed this in 1971 and in subsequent years received aFulbright-Hayespost-doctorate fellowship to study inHarvardandYale.Canny's work is noticeable for its sharp examinations of the ideology of colonisation. He has contributed enormously to current understanding on the Spanish influences on English colonial policy in 16th-century Ireland. In addition, he has built hugely on David Beers Quinn's thesis of Ireland as a practising ground for English colonial policy in the Americas. This study was the basis of his PhD in the United States and Canny's research on this topic has demonstrated the extent of these parallels in a manner previously under appreciated. Canny's debates with fellow historians, Brendan Bradshaw ofCambridge Universityand Ciarán Brady ofTrinity College, Dublin,on why the Reformation failed to reform more than 20% of the population of Ireland, and on the ideology ofEdmund Spenser,have been major additions to historical debate in recent decades. Canny has so far written and/or edited nine major books and over fifty-five academic papers and reviews.

He was Founding Director of the Moore Institute at University of Galway from 2000 to 2011, and President of theRoyal Irish Academyfrom 2008 to 2011. Between 2011 and 2016 he was a Member of the Scientific Council of theEuropean Research Council.He was awarded theCunningham Medalby the Royal Irish Academy in 2020.

Canny is a Fellow of The British Academyand a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.

Works

Published books, edited and coedited

• The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: a Pattern Established,1565=76 (Harvester Press, 1976).
• The Upstart Earl: a Study of the Social and Mental World of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, 1566–1643(Cambridge University Press, 1982).
• From Reformation to Restoration: Ireland 1534–1660(Dublin 1987); the third volume in the Helicon history of Ireland paperback series.
• Kingdom and Colony: Ireland in the Atlantic World 1560–1800(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
• The Westward Enterprise: English Activities in Ireland, the Atlantic and America, 1480–1650,edited together with K. R. Andrews and P. E. H. Hair (Liverpool University Press, 1978) a festschrift for David B. Quinn.
• Colonial Identity in the Atlantic World, 1500–1800,edited with Anthony Pagden (Princeton University Press, 1987).
• Europeans on the Move: Studies on European Migration, 1500–1800edited by Nicholas Canny (Oxford University Press, 1994).
• Empire, Society, and Labor: Essays in Honor of Richard S. Dunn,edited together with Joe Illick and Gary B. Nash (College Park, Pa., published Spring 1997 as supplement no. 64 to Pennsylvania History).
• The Origins of Empire, British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Centuryed., Nicholas Canny vol I of the five volume Oxford History of the British Empire (Oxford University Press,1998).
• Making Ireland British,1580–1650 (Oxford University Press, 2001).

Papers, articles and review articles

• 'Hugh O'Neill and the changing face of Gaelic Ulster', inStudia Hibernica,X (1970), pp. 73–5.
• 'The treaty of Mellifont and the reorganisation of Ulster', inThe Irish Sword,IX (1970) pp. 249–62.
• 'The Flight of the earls, 1607', inIrish Historical Studies,XVII (1971), pp. 380–99.
• 'Changing views on Gaelic Ireland', inTopic: 24: Themes in Irish Culture(Washington, Pennsylvania. 1972), pp. 19–28.
• 'The ideology of English colonisation: from Ireland to America', inThe William & Mary Quarterly,XXX(1973), pp. 575–98; subsequently reprinted inColonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Developmented Stanley N. Katz and John M. Murrin (New York, Knopf, 1983), pp. 47–68; and to be reprinted yet again inTheories of Empire, 1450–1800,ed. David Armitage, (London, Variorum Press, 1998).
• The formation of the OldEnglish elite in Ireland, the National University of Ireland O'Donnell lecture for 1974 published in pamphlet form, Dublin 1975, pp. 37.
• 'Early Modern Ireland: an appraisal appraised', inIrish Economic & Social History,IV (1977), pp. 56–65.
• 'Dominant Minorities: English Settlers in Ireland and Virginia, 15501650', inMinorities in Historyed. A.C. Hepburn (London, Arnold, 1978), pp. 51–69.
• 'Rowland White's "Discors Touching Ireland" [1569]', inIrish Historical Studies,XX (1977), pp. 439–63.
• 'Rowland White's "The Dyssorders of the Irisshery" [1571]', inStudia Hibernica,XIX (1979), pp. 147–60.
• 'Why the Reformation failed in Ireland: une question mal posée', inJournal of Ecclesiastical History,XXX (1979), pp. 423–50.
• 'Sixteenth Century Ireland: Themes and Sources', a debate with Dr. Brendan Bradshaw, Sussex Tapes, 1981.
• 'The AngloAmerican Colonial Experience', inHistorical Journal,XXIV (1981), pp. 485–503.
• 'The Formation of the Irish Mind: Religion, Politics and Gaelic Irish Literature, 1580–1750', inPast & Presentno. 95 (1982), pp. 91–116; subsequently reprinted inNationalism and Popular Protest in Ireland,ed. C. H. E. Philpin (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 50–79.
• 'Edmund Spenser and the Development of an AngloIrish Identity', inYearbook of English Studies,XIII (1983), pp. 119.
• 'Galway: from the Reformation to the Penal Laws', in Diarmuid Ó Cearbhaill ed.,Galway: Town & Gown,14841984 (Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 1984), pp. 10–28.
• 'Fusion and Faction in Modern Ireland', inComparative Studies in Society and HistoryXXVI (1984), pp. 35265.
• 'Migration and Opportunity: Britain, Ireland and the New World', inIrish Economic & Social HistoryXII (1985), pp. 732; subsequently included in slightly revised form as a chapter of Kingdom and Colony.
• Debate with Raymond Gillespie on Migration and Opportunity inIrish Economic & Social History,XIII (1986), pp. 96–100.
• 'The Power but not the Gory', inTimes Literary Supplement,19 Dec 1986, p. 14–32: a review ofNew History of Ireland,vol. IV.
• 'Pádraigín Haicéad: an sagart agus an file i gcomhthéacs a aimsire', inDúchas,1983, 1984, 1985 (Dublin, 1986), pp. 820 [Pádraigín Haicéad the priest and the poet in the context of his time].
• 'Natives & Other Strangers: settlement, cultural assimilation and conflict', inCommunity, Culture & Conflict,ed. M.A.G. Ó Tuathaigh (Galway, 1986), pp. 116.
• 'The Irish Background to Penn's Experiment', inThe World of William Penn,ed. R. S. Dunn and M. M. Dunn (Philadelphia,1986), pp. 139–56.
• 'Europeans Abroad: Problems, Perspectives and Possibilities', inHistorical Journal,XXIX (1987), pp. 46979.
• 'Protestants, Planters and Apartheid in Early Modern Ireland', inIrish Historical Studies,XXV, (1986), pp. 105–15.
• 'The Birth of the Modern Constitution', inDe Valera's Constitution and Ours,ed. Brian Farrell (Dublin, 1988), pp. 117.
• 'To Establish a Common Wealthe: Captain John Smith as New World Colonist', inVirginia Magazine of History & BiographyXCVI (1988), pp. 213–22.
• Debate with Dr. Ciaran Brady on 'Spenser's Irish Crisis' inPast & Present120 (1988), pp. 20115.
• 'Raleigh's Ireland', inRaleigh and Quinn: the Explorer and his Boswell,ed. H.G. Jones (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1987), pp. 86–101.
• 'Upper Ireland', inLondon Review of Books,16 March 1989, pp. 89: a review of R.F. Foster, Modern Ireland, 1600–1972
• 'Conquest and Colonisation: the implications of these processes for Modern Irish History', inIrishAustralian Studies: Papers Delivered at the Fifth IrishAustralian Conference,ed. Oliver MacDonagh and W.F. Mandle (Canberra, 1988), pp. 4264.
• 'Early Modern Ireland, c.15001700', inThe Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland,ed. R. F. Foster (Oxford, 1989), pp. 10460.
• 'Introduction: Spenser and Reform in Ireland' inSpenser and Ireland: an Interdisciplinary Perspective,ed., Patricia Coughlan (Cork, 1989), pp. 92–4.
• 'Uplift', inLondon Review of Books,24 May 1990, pp. 223: a review of Oliver MacDonagh, The Emancipist: Daniel O'Connell, 1830–1847.
• 'The British Atlantic World: Working Towards a Definition', inHistorical Journal,XXXIII (1990), pp. 479–97.
• 'In Defence of the Constitution?: the nature of Irish revolt in the Seventeenth Century' inCulture et Pratiques Politiques en France et en Irlande, XVIeXVIIIe siècleed. Louis Bergeron and L.M. Cullen (Paris, 1990), pp. 23–40.
• 'The Marginal Kingdom: Ireland as a Problem in the First British Empire', inStrangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire,ed., Bernard Bailyn and Philip D. Morgan (Chapel Hill, 1991) pp. 35–66.
• 'Ireland: the Historical Context', inThe Spenser Encyclopedia,ed. A.C. Hamilton et al. (Toronto, 1990), pp. 40–47.
• 'The Early Planters: Spenser and his Contemporaries', inThe Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing,ed. Seamus Deane (Derry City & London, 1991), pp. 171–234; prepared with Andrew Carpenter.
• 'Remembering Columbus, 14921992', inJournal of Galway Archaeological & Historical SocietyXLIV (1992) pp. 110.
• 'The Attempted Anglicization of Ireland in the Seventeenth Century: an Exemplar of "British History" ', inThree Nations a Common History c.1600–1920ed. Ronald G. Asch (Bochum, Germany, Universitatsverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer, 1993), pp. 4982; reprinted inThe Political World of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, 1621-1641--, ed. Julia Merritt, (Cambridge, 1996).
• 'The 1641 Depositions as a Source for the Writing of Social History: County Cork as a Case Study', inCork: History and Societyed. Patrick O'Flanagan and Neil Buttimer (Dublin, 1993), pp. 249–308.
• '1641 Depositions: a Source for Social and Cultural History', inHistory Ireland,vol. 1, no.4 (1993), pp. 52–55.
• Irish Resistance to Empire?: 1641, 1690 and 1798', inAn Imperial State at Wared. Lawrence Stone (London, Routledge, 1994) pp. 288–321.
• 'What Really Happened in Ireland in 1641?', inIreland: From Independence to Occupation, 1641–1660,ed. Jane Ohlmeyer (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 24–43.
• 'Irish, Scottish and Welsh Responses to Centralization, c.1530-c1640', inUniting the Kingdom? The Enigma of British History,ed Alexander Grant and Keith Stringer (London, Routledge, 1995), pp. 147–69.
• 'Reviewing A View of the Present State of Ireland' inIrish University Review:Special Issue: Spenser in Ireland, 1596–1996 XXVI (1996), pp. 252–267.
• 'Revising the Revisionist', inIrish Historical Studies,XXX (1996), pp. 242–254.
• 'Religion, Politics and the Irish Rising of 1641', inReligion and Rebellion: the Proceedings of the Twenty Second Irish Conference of Historians,ed. Judith Devlin and Ronan Fanning, (Dublin, 1997), pp. 40–70.
• 'Writing Atlantic History; or, Reconfiguiring the History of Colonial British America', inThe Journal of American History,vol. 86 (1999), pp. 1093–1114.
• 'Atlantic History; what and why?', inEuropean Review,vol. 9 (2001), pp. 399–411.
• ‘Atlantic History, 14921700: Scope, Sources and Methods’, inAtlantic History: History of the Atlantic System, 1580–1830(Göttingen, 2002), pp. 55–64.
• ‘Asia, the Atlantic and the Subjects of the British Monarchy’, inA Companion to Stuart Britain,ed., Barry Coward (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003), pp. 45–66.
• ‘Taking Sides in Early Modern Ireland: the Case of Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone’, inTaking Sides?: Colonial and Confessional Mentalitiés in Early Modern Ireland; Essays in Honour of Karl S. Bottigheimer,ed., Vincent Carey andUte Lotz-Heumann(Dublin, 2003), pp. 94–115.
• ‘Writing Early Modern History: Ireland, Britain and the Wider World’, inThe Historical Journal,vol. 46 (2003), pp. 723–747.

References

• Maher, Helen;Galway Authors,1976

External links

• Moore Institute
• Royal Irish Academy
• ERC Profile