The Origins of Martial Law in Ireland

The policy of colonisation adopted in monster, leash and awfully were imposed from Westminster rather than growing out of local support. Increasingly Irish administration became miniaturised under the pressure of conquest, violence and rebellion so that Shires were often only in place on paper. Vice-Roy's consistently failed to prosecute captains who exceeded their commissions under Sussex. The rewards encouraged adventurers to come to Ireland to seek not the delivery of good governance for the betterment of the people but to enrich themselves by imposing the power of the Queen's government at small cost to the state. Unsurprisingly, often Gaelic Lords and Cheetons struck back at their tormentors which in a gruesome sense simply justified the idea of