The Pale was a small area around Dublin
controlled by the English
 Plantations extended English control over
Ireland. Irish people were driven from
their lands and replaced by English and
Scottish planters.
 The English used plantations to prevent
Irish rebellions, to civilise the Irish and to
enrich themselves by renting land to
planters.

It took place under Queen Mary
 The lands of the O’Mores and O’Connors
were confiscated, made into counties
and given to settlers loyal to England.
The plantation failed because of the
lack of settlers.

This took place under Elizabeth I
 This took place after the defeat of the
Desmond Rebellion. Half a million acres
were given to protestant undertakers. They
promised to pay rent, to defend their
estates and to bring in English farmers to
work on them. Not enough undertakers or
farmers came to make the Plantation work.
But plantation towns were built and English
farming methods adopted.

This took place under King James I
 It took place after the defeat of the
O’Neill and O’Donnell clans in the Nine
years war and the Flight of the Earls in
1607.
 Four million acres were planted. Estates
of 2000, 1500 and 1000 acres were given
to undertakers, to servitors (soldiers who
were loyal to England) and some trusted
Irish gentlemen.

London craft guilds were given Co.
Londonderry. The Anglican Church and
Trinity College received land.
 Many planters came to Ulster. English
farming methods, industry and trade
brought prosperity. Well laid out
plantation towns were built.
 Long term results include political,
religious and cultural divisions in Ulster
which persist to the present day.

Under Oliver Cromwell’s Plantation of
1652 many Catholic landowners were
driven west of the Shannon ‘to Hell or to
Connacht’. This plantation failed to
destroy the Catholic religion in Ireland,
but it caused large-scale transfer of land
to Protestants.
 Plantations in general caused a change
of land ownership in Ireland. They also
led to the rule of the Protestant
Ascendancy, which later supported
Penal Laws against Catholics.

John Smith – received land in the Ulster
Plantation in 1609. received land in Co.
Tyrone – one of the 6 counties planted.
 The plantation was made possible when
Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell
were defeated in the Nine Years War
and left the country without permission in
1607 - this was called the Flight of The
Earls

These chieftans were considered traitors
and their land was confiscated by King
James I.
 Undertaker – an English gentlemen who
promises (undertakes) to be loyal to the
King and to practise the Protestant
religion.
 I pay an annual rent of £5 for 20,000
acres, it is very low but I am not allowed
to rent land to Irish tenants, I must bring
English tenants over to Ulster at my own
expense.

I have to build a stone castle surrounded
by a walled area called a bawn. This is
protect us from tories or woodkerne.
Tories are Irish clansmen who were driven
from their lands and attack us and steal
our cattle.
 My tenant farmers and I will introduce
English Farming Methods in my estate. We
have to cut down forests which isn’t easy
as this is a hiding place for the tories.


The government is building plantation
towns, they will be places of English
civilisation and order.

WE hope the King will grant a Charter to
Tyrone – then we will be able to elect a
corporation to run the town,

My name is Sean O’Neill, a clansman of
the great Hugh O’Neill. I was driven from
my land because of the Ulster Plantation.

Before the English interfered we raised
cattle on our land. Hugh O’Neill was the
leader of our clan but it was the clan
and not Hugh O’Neill who owned the
land.
A planter named John Smith now grows
crops on 2,000 acres of our land, he was
granted the land by King James I.
According to the English law he now
owns the land.
 In 1607, Hugh was forced by the English
to leave Ireland, the Flight of the Earls
gave King James the excuse to declare
Hugh as a traitor and plant all his land.
 The land was given to 3 types of planter:
undertakers, servitors and trusted Irish
gentlemen.

John Smith is an undertaker, this means
he has promised to keep the land safe for
the King and to practise the Protestant
religion. He is not allowed to take Irish
tenants.
 Smith built a stone castle and a walled
enclosure called a bawn. My clansmen
and I are now hiding in the woods and
mountains and we attack the foreigners.
The English call us Tories or woodkerne.


Life is hard for us. According to English
law, we are outlaws and can be legally
killed. Hopefully the Pope or the King of
Spain will help O’Neill to come back and
drive out the planters from our land.
Land ownership changed greatly in
Ireland. Before the plantations only the
Pale was under English control and after
the plantations Ireland was firmly under
English control and most of the land
belonged to the English.
 The Protestant Ascendancy – who were
a wealthy ruling class that controlled
Ireland for more than 200 years.


The Protestants feared the Catholic
majority and encouraged the
government to pass the Penal Laws
against Catholics.