This legal and administrative history of the Irish parliament eschews a chronological, political or thematic approach, focusing instead on how the institution undertook its work and dispatched the business put before it.

Structured around the primary functions of the parliament, the book examines the work of listening to grievances and administering justice, the making of laws, the role of officers and servants, and the management of parliamentary privilege. It looks at how these functions and responsibilities developed over time, situating parliament within the administrative and legal history of Ireland. It also puts the Irish parliament firmly within the larger European parliamentary tradition, particularly the colonial system of government of the early modern English world. While never rejecting the importance of parliamentary politics or local representation at the political core of the kingdom, the book attempts to understand parliament when politics is not the sole concern.

Based on decades of research, The Irish parliament, 1613–89 is essential reading for students and scholars of early modern Ireland, administrative history and the legal and parliamentary history of the British Empire.