Surviving Kinsale: Irish Emigration and Identity Formation in Early Modern Spain, 1601–40

In the aftermath of the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 as many as 10,000 Irish emigrated from Ireland to Galicia in the north-west of Spain. Between 1601 and 1608 the brunt of this immigration fell on the city of La Coruña, which became a virtual encampment of starving homeless Irish nobles, soldiers, women, children, elderly and poor. This is the story of that community and how its members adapted to their new circumstances, and how they themselves, their social structures and beliefs were transformed by their immigrant experience. Through an examination of the community across a broad range of social cultural aspects such as family, literacy, material culture, the acquisition of honours, religious sentiment, and social ascent, important new insights into Irish socio-cultural history have been uncovered.