Irish language in early modern Biscay

Early modern Lordship of Biscay hosted a small community of Catholic Irish refugees, who found ways of prosperity linked to the Atlantic trade, after fleeing from the protestant repression of Ireland. Both within this group and in other public spaces, Irish language played a relevant role in different socioeconomic domains: decrees of the Consulado de Bilbao, court cases, naturalization of Irish immigrants, Irish tannery activities in Biscay, common sociability areas, or the privacy of the Irish families. Irish language found their place in all these environments as a way of claiming and preserving the identity and cultural attributes of an exiled society.