The Londonderry Plantation was published originally in 1939. Only 500 units were produced and printed in the Channel Islands where, reputedly, part of the stock was impounded by the occupation of the islands by the Germans at the end of June 1940. Thus a hugely important work, by an accomplished historian, who was able to draw on historical archives in the City of London which perished in the Blitz, never reached, as it should have, the wider research community who would have benefited from its scholarship.

Consequently, the Foundation wishes to see that it is made available for a modern audience. This publication was the first seriously scholarly attempt to understand what actually happened in the Londonderry Plantation; it was published at a time when Irish historical writing was entering a new phase with a more ‘scientific’ approach to historical writing and research, with Moody and his peers leading the way; and it is a valuable resource for local historians and those interested in changes wrought by developments in the seventeenth century.

As Prof. James Stevens Curl comments in the conclusion to his new Foreword to the work: "So Moody’s great book remains of singular significance in the history of Ulster, and although I was privileged to carry on research into the Londoners’ Plantation well past 1641, I acknowledge the integrity of Moody’s scholarship and industry in laying the foundations of proper source-based narrative, free from speculation, hoary mythology, and cant."