In this important study, reissued here in paperback along with a new historiographical essay, T.C. Barnard anatomizes the Irish problem of the mid-seventeenth century and connects it to the English politics and policies both before and after the interregnum. He looks closely at how and by whom Ireland was ruled and how its government was financed, and he explores in detail the primary Cromwellian goals in Ireland: propagating the Protestant gospel, providing English and Protestant education, advancing learning, and reforming the law.