A Tragedy of Cola’s Furie or Lirenda’s Miserie

Cola’s Furie (1646) by Henry Burkhead was published in Kilkenny during the Catholic Confederacy. A fascinating composite of history play and revenge tragedy, the drama allegorizes the events and leading figures of the Irish wars prior to the Ormond cessation of 1643. At the heart of the struggle between the noble Lirendians (the Confederate Irish) and the cruel Angoleans (the puritan New English) is the title character Sir Carola Cola, a representation of Sir Charles Coote Senior, a New English commander infamous for his brutality. Burkhead depicts Cola as a demonic figure whose vengeful ‘furie’ becomes symbolic of the hidden dynamics of a corrupt authority.