GANTZ, Ida. Signpost to Eyrecourt. Portrait of the Eyre Family Triumphant in the Cause of Liberty – Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Galway c.1415-1856. With illustrations and genealogical charts on endpapers.

Bath: Kingsmead Press, 1975. First edition. pp. xi, 216. Red papered boards, title in gilt on spine. A fine copy in pictorial dust jacket. Scarce.

John Eyre (died 1685) was an English Cromwellian settler in Ireland who became Mayor of Galway. He was born in Wiltshire, England, in the early 17th century, the son of Giles Eyre and Jane Snelgrove. The couple had ten sons and five daughters, John being the seventh son. Eyre and his younger brother Edward were officers in the forces of the Parliament, Eyre rising to the rank of major. In 1649 the brothers arrived in Dublin as part an invasion force of 12,000 men led by Oliver Cromwell. They saw service mainly under the command of Edward Ludlow.

Eyre is mentioned as one of the officers with Ludlow when he arrived at Galway in 1651. With the surrender of the town in April 1652 the war ended, and the brothers began securing much property seized from Irish Roman Catholics, within the town and also in other parts of County Galway. Much land was made over to Cromwellian officers who were owed substantial pay arrears. Eyre’s main landed estates were in the south-east of the county, dispossessing families such as Kelly, Madden, Horan, and Burke. In this area, known in Irish as Síol Anmchadha, Eyre created the town of Eyrecourt and his main residence. This continued to be the home of generations of the family.

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