In 1617 Fynes Moryson referred to Ireland as ‘this most famous island in the Virginia sea’, consciously situating post-medieval Ireland in the context of British expansion throughout the Atlantic world (Moryson 1907 [1617], IV, 185). While the socio-economic and political relationships between Ireland and Britain over the last 500 years are complex, often contradictory and clearly still contested, the two islands exhibit a common material heritage and a shared, if conflicted, experience in the broader Atlantic world (and beyond) that necessitates a global, comparative approach that is nonetheless firmly rooted in the local. By focusing first upon Ireland and its relationship with Britain, then broadening out to the Atlantic, the contributors provide a welcome new perspective on the archaeology and material culture of the last 500 years, enabling broader consideration of the commonalities and divergences between Ireland, Britain and the New World.

Although the connections between British expansion in Ireland and in the New World have long been acknowledged by scholars, the majority of studies have emanated from, and therefore focus upon, North America. This volume, by contrast, places Ireland and its relationship with Britain at the centre of discussions germane to archaeologists examining the legacy of colonialism around the world: identity construction; divergent uses and understandings of a shared material culture; the maritime framework underlying the economic, social and ideological interdependencies of the Atlantic world; the role of landscape and architecture in both structuring daily life and being structured and subverted through daily practice; concerns over conflict, violence, resistance, and chosen as well as imposed isolation; and the conundrum of public interpretation of remembered and forgotten pasts in a post-colonial world. This volume is divided into sections that address four themes: landscapes and seascapes of conflict; change and continuity in the rural and urban landscape; material culture, trade and manufacturing; and archaeologies of the Irish diaspora.

This volume brings together, for the first time, substantive contributions by a range of scholars working in Britain, Ireland and North America. Each brings his or her own individual background, expertise and approach to archaeology of the modern world, orienting the newly developing field of Irish post-medieval archaeology in relation to the more established field of European post-medieval archaeology and the aims of a global historical archaeology. The chapters in this collection constitute significantly revised versions of papers presented at the 2004 Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group conference, held in conjunction with the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology in Derry City.