This thesis is a study of cultural interaction in Ulster between indigenous Gaelic, Anglo-Irish and English colonial society during the later sixteenth-century. It focuses particularly upon the period of the Nine Years’ War, a conflict between the native Gaelic lords and the Elizabethan crown which is traditionally dated 1594-1603. It does not examine how the two cultures encountered each other on the battlefield but how they did so through the built environment. As noted by Per Cornell (2015, 103) the archaeological profession encounters only traces of the past. In order to gather as many evidential traces as possible my study is rooted in historical archaeology, combining evidence from archaeological excavations, fieldwork and archive data with contemporary text records, cartographic sources and pictorial representations. By incorporating the work of historians, archaeologists and geographers the thesis research gathers more evidential traces than any single approach. The thesis challenges current narratives on the role and meaning of churches, crannogs and tower houses in the contemporary Ulster Gaelic landscape and society. It discusses for the first time evidence of Gaelic secular and military occupation of church buildings in sixteenth-century Ulster. It identifies the role of crannogs within sixteenth-century Ulster Gaelic society and reveals a new archaeological site-type, the crannog-bawn, from which crannogs were accessed and within which ceremonies of hospitality were initiated. It examines tower houses as texts, arguing that they were not built primarily for defence but to help elites display messages of status and identity. The thesis places discussion of Gaelic elite sites within wider debates, showing how the study of Gaelic Ulster can contribute to archaeological discussion at an international level.

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This thesis challenges existing diocesan histories of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. Its local focus provides an invaluable opportunity to explore the successes and failures of the reformations in the region. The arguments are split into four chapters, which are divided between the upper and lower clerical orders, the secular and religious clergy, both before and during the eras of the Tudor reformations. The argument uses antiquarian sources, Irish annals and English state papers to narrate the formation of diocesan, parochial and monastic structures in the region. The quality of each is then assessed for both the late medieval and reformations periods, with direct reference to the effects of the peculiarities of Co. Cork’s religion upon the progress of reform. The thesis argues that the secular elites of Cork, Cloyne and Ross were intrinsically wedded to its church, involved heavily in the creation of the parish and monastic networks. Following the contraction of the crown polity in the medieval periods, local families took on increasing levels of influence. During the Tudor period, the crown sought to expand its power in the region. However, the agents of reform failed to engage with the Irish and Anglo-Norman elites. Instead, their work would be accomplished at the expense of the traditional political and religious structures. This failure was based in the pervasive economic and polical connections between the secular and religious elites of Co. Cork, but was reinforced by the particular weaknesses of the Anglican reformation strategy.