In 2007, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge embarked on a joint project to digitize and transcribe the 1641 Depositions. The depositions, one of Ireland's most contested source materials, had been housed in the library of Trinity College Dublin for over 300 years. The uniqueness and condition of the source, and the challenge of actually reading the variant handwriting within it, had rendered the depositions largely inaccessible to researchers. The 1641 Depositions Project has now allowed researchers to overcome these traditional stumbling blocks.

The collection of essays presented here is the first to bear the fruits of the project. It draws on the work of emerging and established scholars, to provide new perspectives on the depositions. Most of the contributors to this volume were involved in the 1641 Depositions Project. They are, therefore, uniquely placed to provide new and dynamic perspectives on social, cultural, military and political aspects of seventeenth-century Irish life, through close interrogation of the depositions themselves. This collection, therefore, moves beyond the traditional debates on the 1641 rebellion in Ireland and captures cutting-edge research on the depositions. It is intended that this book will encourage further exploration of the depositions by providing an insight into the methodologies and approaches that can be taken in analysing them. The research possibilities are endless, and this collection hopefully marks the beginning of a series of new, innovative and challenging studies of the 1641 Depositions.