This book presents a series of essays that examine the ideological,
personal, and political difficulties faced by the group variously termed
the Anglo-Irish, the Protestant Ascendancy, or the English in Ireland, a
group that existed in a world of contested ideological, political, and
cultural identities. At the root of this conflicted sense of self was an
acute awareness among the Anglo-Irish of their liminal position as
colonial dominators in Ireland who were viewed as 'other' both by the
Catholic natives of Ireland and their English kinsmen. The work in this
volume is highly interdisciplinary, bringing to bear examination of
issues that are historical, literary, economic, and sociological.