Although Milton’s relationship with Ireland will not be as active after 1653 as it had been in the previous fifteen years, Ireland does not entirely disappear from Milton’s work. Ireland is implied in “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont” and in Paradise Lost (1667, 1674). Ireland also appears occasionally in Milton’s The History of Britain. Milton’s personal connections to Ireland grow after the Cromwellian conquest. More importantly, though, Milton has been a persistent presence in Ireland – not only as a literary figure, but also as a republican political theorist: He is cited by Irish Republicans in the eighteenth and twentienth centuries, and by Irish authors including W. B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, John McGahern, Eimear McBride, and more. At the same time, Milton’s insights into pre-Cromwellian Ireland represent a hidden potential for today’s post-Brexit Ireland.

This coda considers in dialogue two influential Irish publishers, The Irish Times and Tramp Press, that have successfully adapted to the digital age while maintaining a deep commitment to literature and readers. The Irish Times is a venerable newspaper of record founded in 1859 whose form and content reflect contemporary conditions, while Tramp Press is a small, independent press founded in 2014 whose venturesome publications have garnered enthusiastic critical praise. As divergent as their organisational structures and objectives, these publishers share a common mission in advocating literature, and particularly Irish literature, as an essential and durable cultural instrument – one that not only helps readers to apprehend their contemporary moment, but also encourages them to think critically about the past and to imagine possible futures.