THE MAKING OF THE IRISH PROTESTANT ASCENDANCY

Outlines how William Conolly rose from a Catholic, relatively humble background, how he acquired very significant wealth, held many key political positions and patronised the architects who fashioned Georgian Dublin and Irish country houses. His life illustrates how the protestant ascendancy was consolidated, but also shows that the ascendancy was not a closed elite, and that it contained a strong strand of Irish patriotism, being much more than the instrument of British rule in Ireland.