Ulster plantation remembered

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the Ulster Plantation, a critical episode in Irish history when English and Scottish planters were settled on confiscated lands in the north. This influx shaped the Northern Ireland of today. The Church of Ireland Historical Society, meeting in the Georgian grandeur of the Robinson Library (1771), in Armagh, examined aspects of the Plantation. Brian Mac Cuarta SJ spoke on the Catholic Church at the time of the Plantation, and explored the diversity within the church’s experience. He noted for example that Scots Catholics were seeking refuge in Ulster in those decades. In the photo, outside St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, are (left to right):  Dean Patrick Rook, four of the speakers (Jonathon Bardon, William Roulston, Brian Mac Cuarta SJ, James Golden), and Canon Adrian Empey.