Irish Voices from the Spanish Inquisition: Migrants, Converts and Brokers in Early Modern Iberia by Thomas O'Connor (review)

Thomas O'Connor's last book can be considered the ideal continuation of a journey that began in 2008 with the publication of his Irish Jansenists, 1600–1670. Based on an impressive amount of European, Irish, and Mexican sources, this new book aims to provide a groundbreaking analysis of the activities and role played by the Irish migrants in Spain and in the Spanish colonies in America during the early modern period. By examining the three most influential and represented groups of Irish migrants—the clerics, the merchants, and the soldiers—within Spanish society, the author examines their thorny relations with the Spanish Inquisition.

In the first part of the book, O'Connor sets the agenda by providing a clear picture of how the various groups of Irish migrants in Spain fitted within the context of the Spanish society during the second half of the sixteenth century. This is a pivotal point, because the author clearly illustrates that the Spanish Inquisition was not a monolithic structure that adopted a dogmatic strategy. Indeed, by focusing on the Irish merchants, the author shows that the Inquisition had to deal with a series of different cases in which the political and religious loyalties of this particular migrants' community were often changing. Due to this the tribunal was forced to use a multilayered approach that took into account the shifting loyalties of the Irish migrants. The section on the sixteenth century also includes the Irish clergy. By drawing on the sources of the local tribunals, O'Connor shows how the Irish clerics who cooperated with the Inquisition played the dual role of interpreters and spies amid the migrants who arrived from the British Isles.

The second section explores the seventeenth century, when Irish migration to Spain considerably increased, and even stretched to the Spanish possessions in Central and South America. O'Connor demonstrates how, during this period, a certain number of Irish migrants sought to obtain a role in the Inquisition, a step that would facilitate their process of integration within Spanish society. Of particular interest is the chapter devoted to the inquisitorial processes that involved Irish migrants in Mexico. By focusing on the famous case study of William Lamport, O'Connor reveals the complex web of networks and patronage which existed behind the Irish migrants.

The last section of the book explores the Irish migration to Spain during the eighteenth century and how this phenomenon brought the Spanish Inquisition to elaborate once again a flexible strategy. O'Connor's analysis particularly focuses on the role played by the Irish merchants, and how this group was increasingly put under control by the Inquisition. This last section also includes a fascinating chapter on the female dimension of Irish migration. Using untapped sources in the inquisitorial records, O'Connor sheds new light on Irishwomen who were involved in cases of sexual offenses. What emerges from his analysis is the suggestion that Irishwomen played a crucial brokering role between the "host" society and the Irish migrant community.

In conclusion, O'Connor's book is an outstanding and extremely well-researched investigation that has contributed to a significant expansion of the historiography on the cultural, political, and religious links that existed between Ireland the Spanish monarchy. By fitting the Irish migration within the difficult and—most of the time—tricky context of the Spanish Inquisition's activities, the author illuminates an unexplored dimension of the Irish diaspora during the early modern period.