KILROY, Patricia. Fall of the Gaelic Lords. 1534-1616.

Dublin: By Éamonn De Búrca for Edmund Burke Publisher, 2008. Royal octavo. pp. x, 192. Illustrated. Fine in illustrated dust jacket.  No period in Irish history is quite so full of drama, heroism and tragedy as the eighty-odd years from the mid 16th to the early 17th centuries: the age of the fall of the Gaelic lords. This intriguing and moving narrative recounts the passing of Gaelic Ireland when the Tudor Crown sought to subdue the island and the Irish chiefs defended their ancient territories and way of life. Beginning in 1534 with young Silken Thomas’ defiant stand at the gates of Dublin Castle, it tells the story of Red Hugh O’Donnell’s capture and escape, the rise of the Great Hugh O’Neill and the bloody Nine Years War culminating in the Battle of Kinsale, and finally, the Flight of the Earls.

Animated with details from The Annals Of The Four Masters and other contemporary accounts, Fall Of The Gaelic Lords is a lively intelligent book aimed at both the historian and general reader.

Patricia Kilroy was born in Ireland in 1925. As one of the daughters of Seán Lester, who would become the last Secretary-General of the League Of Nations, she spent most of her childhood in The Free City Of Danzig and in Geneva. She studied Modern History and Political Science in Trinity College Dublin. She then worked with the Irish Red Cross, settling refugees from Eastern Europe who had been displaced during World War II. After marrying and while raising her four children, her interest in history continued to grow. Family holidays in Connemara sparked her interest in local history, and talking with the people of the area, as well as academic research, led to the publication in 1989 of The Story Of Connemara. That book focused on a small part of Ireland, and covered from the Ice-Age to the present day; after which she felt she would like to cover the whole of Ireland, whilst focusing on one period in time. And so Fall Of The Gaelic Lords was researched and written. Patricia lives in Dublin.