Up until recently, critics of the historiography of the restoration period in Ireland have suggested that it was narrowly focused on land-ownership, the established church, and the history of ‘great men’. Whilst that may have some credence, we must acknowledge that, despite this attention, we have only a handful modern biographies of the grand figures: notably Little on Broghill and McCormick on Petty. Pádraig Lenihan, in this volume, does an admirable job in reassessing the life and work of Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnell – a politician of relevance and substance in the later Stuart period in Ireland and Britain. Previous substantial works on Talbot, the most important by Sergeant and Petrie, are now somewhat dated. More recently, James McGuire and John Miller have written good essays on the subject.

Having survived the carnage at Drogheda in 1649, the Old English Talbot left for the continent and service in the Stuart cause. During this time, he came into contact with the young duke of York, future King James II. Talbot’s close relationship with the duke ensured that he would have a level of influence that would eventually elevate him to the lord lieutenancy. Though his rise to the position was to be a less than straightforward affair. His time from the Restoration through to 1685 was marked by attempts (with mixed results) at enriching both himself and also promoting the fortunes of the Catholic community in Ireland.

The book breaks down into chapters based on a chronology of Talbot’s life and his influence on the affairs of state at the time. Lenihan portrays a complex character who, like almost everyone at the time, was out for himself. He was, however, also genuinely committed to the Catholic cause in Ireland. His difficult and sometimes fruitless years are discussed in chapters dealing with his family background and connections, his war record in the 1640s and 1650s, followed by his close integration into York’s circle and the benefits that followed thereafter. Peter, his brother and Catholic archbishop of Dublin, features prominently in parts of this work, as indeed he should do. They frequently worked closely and with a common aim both for their family and their community. Talbot fell in and out of favour during the three-and-a-half decades after Drogheda. The beginning of the Jacobite period in 1685, which quickly saw the re-Catholicisation of the army, judiciary, and government in Ireland, gave him a firm grip on the kingdom by the time of the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Subsequently, he played a pivotal role until his ultimate demise in Limerick in 1691.

One particular strength of the work is that the author has overcome the acute problem of writing this book without a substantive Talbot archive to work from. Lenihan compensates for this by casting his research net wide. While the large Carte and Clarendon archives are an important source, the work is not overly dependent on them. This reflects positively on the work, providing readers with a somewhat different interpretation to past historians of Talbot. Many histories of the Restoration, for instance, have focused on Ormond and his interpretation of affairs through the prism of his considerable archive at the Bodleian. As one might expect, Lenihan is at his best discussing Talbot during the reign of James II, and particularly so when the military and military-related aspects of his career are under inspection. The closing chapters of the work are particularly insightful and will be of immense benefit to scholars of later seventeenth-century Ireland and beyond. Notably, the author brings clarity and balance to the murky political manoeuvrings when the war begins in 1688, a subject of considerable disagreement amongst scholars.

This work, however, is not without issues, albeit many of them minor. There are several misidentifications of figures and institutions, particularly in the somewhat awkward chapters covering the Restoration. The regular use of the term ‘Papist’ outside of quotations seems a little dated. That being said, Lenihan is hardly the only practising historian to regularly employ the term in either print or speech, although usually not in Ireland. The endnotes and bibliography are somewhat rushed, and although perhaps not the responsibility of the author, the map of Ireland (p. 31) is miniscule and illegible to all but the most eagle-eyed.

These caveats aside, Lenihan’s book is a most welcome addition to the history of the latter half of the seventeenth century. The book is an accessible and an enjoyable read. It will be indispensable to those studying the period, especially Jacobite Ireland and the politics of the war. Lenihan, in the end, presents a most insightful understanding of the occasionally complex Dick Talbot.