DR PÁDRAIG LENIHAN

Ph.D

 
researcher
 

Biography

Book Reviews

My abiding research interest has been in military history in the long seventeenth century c.1590-c.1735 taking the broad view of military history to include demographic impact, epidemic disease, and literary/iconographic representations as well as military strategy and tactics. If I were to pick the book of which I am most proud it would have to be the Poema which I discovered in the Gilbert Collection Dublin City Library. It is a 5,500 line epic Poem in Latin on the long background to the `Glorious Revolution¿ (books 1-3) and the Irish fightback to defend the hereditary rights of James II (books 4-6)Winners write the history books. This work is so important because is only the third contemporaneous Irish account of the War of the Two Kings (1689-91). Moreover, the writer ¿whom I identified- was one of Richard Talbot Earl of Tyrconnell¿s inner circle and he gives a well-informed insider¿s view in which he steers a middle course between the partisans of Tyrconnell and Patrick Sarsfield as represented by the other two sources.Translating and presenting Latin poetry is a different proposition from prose and is very challenging because the word order is subordinated to the exigencies of metrical composition and the choice of words is frequently obscure or allusive. This translation is the result of a sustained (over many years) close and mutually respectful line by line collaboration between, on the one hand, a Latin scholar who had an eye for translating into contemporary English idiom and a good knowledge of Irish history. On the other an historian with prosaic Latin, good Irish, and superlative geographical knowledge. The work could not have been completed by any other team.  

I currently review, or have reviewed, books and proposals for the following national and international journals and publishers: Bloomsbury, Dublin Review of Books, Journal of the Irish Economic and Social History Society, Irish Studies Review, History Ireland, War in History, History, International History Review, English Historical Review, Peritia, Northern Studies, Irish Historical Studies, Renaissance Quarterly, Journal of Historical Geography, and the English Historical Journal.

Research Interests

My main project for the past four years has been to produce an annotated translation of the manuscript Poema de Hibernia which is a long epic poem in Latin of more than 5,500 lines penned about 1693. This is one of only three primary sources describing the Jacobite regime in Ireland 1685-91 from the Irish point of view and comes from a top official of that regime who is accordingly well-informed. The poem will be published in summer 2017 by the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

I am at present embarked on a transnational comparative study of epidemic disease in wartime armies between 1674 and 1763. This study will categorize, quantify and, finally, evaluate. What were the killer epidemic diseases of European armies in wartime between the 1670s and the 1760s? How many soldiers did these diseases afflict and how many did they kill? How did authorities conceptualize and respond to the massive public health challenge involved? The fourth and final goal is to carry out the first three goals with regard to military and medical developments: for instance, strategy increasingly favoured big field armies embarking on long marches broken by protracted encampments and physicians moved slowly from a Hippocratic paradigm to a mechanical one and increasingly fretted about ‘miasma’ and about propreté in camps.

I propose to achieve the key goals by use of case studies chosen from across Europe to include Roussillon, Ireland, the Milanese, Crimea, Serbia, Bohemia, the Rhineland, Dutch Brabant and Portugal. These episodes have not been chosen for their enduring military significance but because they present a relatively well-documented target group for epidemiological studies. While admitting the difficulties, it is possible to disentangle three categories of disease based on the close observations by physicians like Pringle and Dezon and on the characteristic patterns of seasonal incidence: these are the dysentery of high summer, 'bilious fever' (typhoid and malaria) of late summer/autumn and (typically) wintertime typhus.The studies are grounded in runs of data whichcan tell us how many soldiers died of sickness as distinct from overall attrition through combat and desertion.

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2016) 'The Irish Brigade'
Pádraig Lenihan (2016) 'The Irish Brigade'. Eighteenth-Century Ireland Iris An Dá Chultúr, :45-72 [Details]
(2013) 'An account of the battle of Aughrim from the 'Poema de Hibernia' Analecta Hibernica'
Padraig Lenihan and Mark Stansbury (2013) 'An account of the battle of Aughrim from the 'Poema de Hibernia' Analecta Hibernica'. Analecta Hibernica, 44 :171-189 [Details]
(2011) 'Namur Citadel, 1695: A Case Study in Allied Siege Tactics'
Lenihan, P. (2011) 'Namur Citadel, 1695: A Case Study in Allied Siege Tactics'. War In History, [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2007) 'Unhappy Campers: Dundalk (1689) and After''
Lenihan, P. (2007) 'Unhappy Campers: Dundalk (1689) and After''. Journal of Conflict Archaeology, :197-216 [Details]
(2005) 'A Swiss Soldier in Ireland 1689-90'
Lenihan, P.; Sheridan, G (2005) 'A Swiss Soldier in Ireland 1689-90'. Irish Studies Review, (4):479-497 [Details]
(2004) 'King Billy: A Military Assessment'
Lenihan, P. (2004) 'King Billy: A Military Assessment'. History Ireland, 12 (1):18-23 [Details]
(1998) 'War and Population'
Lenihan, P. (1998) 'War and Population'. Irish Economic And Social History, :1-21 [Details]
(1994) 'Catholicism and the Irish Confederate Armies: for God or King?'
Lenihan, P. (1994) 'Catholicism and the Irish Confederate Armies: for God or King?'. Recusant History, :182-197 [Details]

Books

  Year Publication
(2023) Raw Generals and Green Soldiers: Catholic Armies in Ireland 1641-4.
Lenihan, Pádraig (2023) Raw Generals and Green Soldiers: Catholic Armies in Ireland 1641-4. Warwick, UK: Helion. [Details]
(2019) Fluxes, Fevers and Fighting Men: War and Disease in Ancien Regime Europe.
Padraig Lenihan (2019) Fluxes, Fevers and Fighting Men: War and Disease in Ancien Regime Europe. Warwick UK: Helion. [Details]
(2014) The Last Cavalier Richard Talbot (1631-91).
Pádraig Lenihan (2014) The Last Cavalier Richard Talbot (1631-91). Dublin: UCD Press. [Details]
(2007) Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1730.
Lenihan, P. (2007) Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1730. : Longman. [Details]
(2003) Battle of the Boyne 1690.
Lenihan, P. (2003) Battle of the Boyne 1690. : Tempus. [Details]
(2001) Confederate Catholics at War 1642-49.
Lenihan, P. (2001) Confederate Catholics at War 1642-49. : Cork University Press. [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2018) 'That Much Wasted Country': Wartime Roscommon 1641-47'
Lenihan, P. (2018) 'That Much Wasted Country': Wartime Roscommon 1641-47' In: Roscommon History and Society. Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish County Dublin. Ireland: Geography Publications. [Details]
(2018) 'Wars of Religion, 1641–1691'
Cronin, J., & Lenihan, P. (2018) 'Wars of Religion, 1641–1691' In: The Cambridge History of Ireland. :246-270 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Details]
(2015) 'The Boyne Revisited'
Pádraig Lenihan (2015) 'The Boyne Revisited' In: Meath History and Society. Dublin: Geography Publications. [Details]
(2011) 'The impact on the Battle of Aughrim (1691) on the Irish Catholic élite’ in Brian Mac Cuarta (ed.)'
Lenihan, P. (2011) 'The impact on the Battle of Aughrim (1691) on the Irish Catholic élite’ in Brian Mac Cuarta (ed.)' In: Reshaping Ireland 1550-1700. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
(2010) 'Ballaí Luimnigh: The Sieges of Limerick in L. Irwin, G. Ó Tuathaigh and M. Potter (eds.)'
Lenihan, P. (2010) 'Ballaí Luimnigh: The Sieges of Limerick in L. Irwin, G. Ó Tuathaigh and M. Potter (eds.)' In: Limerick: History and Society. :129-158 Dublin: Geography Publications. [Details]
(2009) '‘Confederate Catholics and Scottish Covenanters, 1644-46’ in W. P. Kelly and J. R. Young (eds.)'
Lenihan, P. (2009) '‘Confederate Catholics and Scottish Covenanters, 1644-46’ in W. P. Kelly and J. R. Young (eds.)' In: Scotland and the Ulster Plantations: Explorations in the Scottish Settlement of Ulster in Stuart Ireland. :108-121 Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
(2005) 'The Battle of Dungan's Hill'
Lenihan, P. (2005) 'The Battle of Dungan's Hill' In: Irishmen in War: From the Crusades to 1798. :90-104 Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
(2002) 'Prophesies of the Saints in Modern Irish History in André Vauchez (ed.)'
Lenihan, P. (2002) 'Prophesies of the Saints in Modern Irish History in André Vauchez (ed.)' In: L’attente des temps nouveaux. Eschatologie et millénarismes et visions du futur du Moyen Âge au XXe siècle. :61-72 France: Turnhout, Brepols. [Details]
(2001) 'Confederate Military Strategy, 1643-7'
Lenihan, P. (2001) 'Confederate Military Strategy, 1643-7' In: Kingdoms in crisis: Ireland in the 1640s. Essays in honour of Donal Cregan. :158-175 Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
(2001) 'Introduction'
Lenihan, P. (2001) 'Introduction' In: Conquest and Resistance: War in Seventeenth-century Ireland. :1-23 Leiden and Boston: Brill. [Details]
(2001) 'Strategic Geography 1641-1691'
Pádraig Lenihan (2001) 'Strategic Geography 1641-1691' In: Conquest and Resistance: War in Seventeenth-century Ireland. :115-151 Leiden & Boston: Brill. [Details]
(2001) 'Conclusion; Ireland’s Military Revolution(s)'
Pádraig Lenihan (2001) 'Conclusion; Ireland’s Military Revolution(s)' In: Conquest and Resistance: War in Seventeenth-century Ireland. :345-371 Leiden & Boston: Brill. [Details]
(1997) 'Celtic Warfare Revisited'
Lenihan, P. (1997) 'Celtic Warfare Revisited' In: Celtic Dimensions of the British Civil Wars. :116-140 Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd. [Details]

Edited Books

  Year Publication
(2018) POEMA DE HIBERNIA: A Jacobite Latin Epic on the Williamite Wars.
Párdaig Lenihan and Keith Sidwell (Ed.). (2018) POEMA DE HIBERNIA: A Jacobite Latin Epic on the Williamite Wars POEMA DE HIBERNIA: A Jacobite Latin Epic on the Williamite Wars. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission. [Details]
(2007) Age of Atrocity: Violence and Political Conflict in Early Modern Ireland.
Lenihan, P., Clodagh Tait, David Edwards (Ed.). (2007) Age of Atrocity: Violence and Political Conflict in Early Modern Ireland Age of Atrocity: Violence and Political Conflict in Early Modern Ireland. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
(2001) Conquest and Resistance War in Seventeenth-Century Ireland.
Lenihan, P (Ed.). (2001) Conquest and Resistance War in Seventeenth-Century Ireland Conquest and Resistance War in Seventeenth-Century Ireland. Brill and Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. [Details]

Other Journals

  Year Publication
(2020) 'My cabal of one¿ The marquis de Boisseleau and the `Battle of the Breach¿ at the first siege of Limerick, 1690'
Padraig Lenihan (2020) 'My cabal of one¿ The marquis de Boisseleau and the `Battle of the Breach¿ at the first siege of Limerick, 1690' History Ireland, 28 (5) . [Details]
(2009) 'Schomberg at Dundalk, 1689'
Lenihan, Padraig (2009) 'Schomberg at Dundalk, 1689' Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, . [Details]

Reviews

  Year Publication
(2018) Elaine Murphy, Ireland and the War at Sea 1641-1653, in Renaissance Quarterly.
Padraig Lenihan (2018) Elaine Murphy, Ireland and the War at Sea 1641-1653, in Renaissance Quarterly. Reviews [Details]
(2019) Ruth A. Canning, The Old English in Early Modern Ireland: The Palesmen and the Nine Years' War, 1594-1603 in Renaissance Quarterly.
Padraig Lenihan (2019) Ruth A. Canning, The Old English in Early Modern Ireland: The Palesmen and the Nine Years' War, 1594-1603 in Renaissance Quarterly. Reviews [Details]
(2023) Michelle O¿ Riordan, Poetics and Polemics: Reading seventeenth-century Irish political verse in The Seventeenth Century.
Padraig Lenihan (2023) Michelle O¿ Riordan, Poetics and Polemics: Reading seventeenth-century Irish political verse in The Seventeenth Century. Reviews [Details]
(2022) Frances Nolan, The Jacobite Duchess: Frances Jennings, Duchess of Tyrconnell, c.1649-1731 in Eighteenth Century Ireland.
Padraig Lenihan (2022) Frances Nolan, The Jacobite Duchess: Frances Jennings, Duchess of Tyrconnell, c.1649-1731 in Eighteenth Century Ireland. Reviews [Details]
(2018) Religion and politics in Urban Ireland, c.1500–c.1750: essays in honour of colm lennon. Edited by Salvador Ryan and Clodagh Tait. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2016. Irish Historical Studies.
Lenihan, P. (2018) Religion and politics in Urban Ireland, c.1500–c.1750: essays in honour of colm lennon. Edited by Salvador Ryan and Clodagh Tait. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2016. Irish Historical Studies. Reviews [Details]
(2019) Catholic Survival in Protestant Ireland, 1660-1711: Colonel John Browne, Landownership and the Articles of Limerick. By Eoin Kinsella. Irish Historical Monographs. in History: Journal of the Historical Association.
Lenihan, P. (2019) Catholic Survival in Protestant Ireland, 1660-1711: Colonel John Browne, Landownership and the Articles of Limerick. By Eoin Kinsella. Irish Historical Monographs. in History: Journal of the Historical Association. Reviews [Details]
(2022) DENNEHY Law and Revolution in Seventeenth-Century Ireland in The English Historical Journal.
Lenihan, P. (2022) DENNEHY Law and Revolution in Seventeenth-Century Ireland in The English Historical Journal. Reviews [Details]