emThomas Hobbes and Political Thought in Ireland, c.1660-1730em is a history of political thought in Ireland, told from the perspective of the reception in that country of Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher. Unlike Hobbes, political thought in Ireland has received little attention from historians it is sometimes assumed that there is not much of a subject to study. The reception of Hobbes in Ireland forces us to challenge this assumption. pTo begin with, Matthew Ward highlights the variety and sophistication of political thought in Ireland. In his political thought, Hobbes was preoccupied by sovereignty, which he conceptualized in terms of natural law and made the defining characteristic of the commonwealth, or the 'Leviathan' but he applied his concept of sovereignty to a broad range of political issues. His political thought was also part of a wider philosophical system which comprehended history, theology, natural philosophy, and mathematics. They may have been fewer than their