HAYES-McCOY, Gerard A. Scots Mercenary Forces in Ireland (1565-1603) First edition.

RARE FIRST EDITION INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR EOIN MACNEILL

An account of their service during that period, of the reaction of their activities on Scottish affairs, and of the effect of their presence in Ireland, together with an examination of the Gallóglaigh or Galloglas. With maps, illustrations and genealogies of the MacSweeneys, Clan Donald and the O’Neills of Tír Eoghain. Dublin & London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1937. Large post octavo. First edition. pp. xxi, 391. Gray cloth, titled in gilt. A fine copy in very good dust jacket. Rare first edition.
The Mac Liam Iochtar Bourkes of County Mayo first brought over from Scotland, MacDonnell galloglasses at the close of the fourteenth century. This is undoubtedly the standard authoritative work on the history of Scottish mercenary forces, the Galloglas, in Irish Gallóglaigh (foreign warrior), which came from the Out-Isles and the West Highlands of Scotland to fight for the Irish Chieftains from the fourteenth to the latter half of the sixteenth century. Hayes-McCoy’s original title was ‘Redshank Scots in Ireland.’ They were a force to be reckoned with. An English writer of the period described them as follows: “The galloglasses are picked and selected men of great and mighty bodies, cruel, without compassion. The greatest force of the battle consisteth in their choosing rather to die than to yield, so that when it cometh to handy blows, they are quickly slain or win the field. They are armed with a shirt of mail, a skull, and a skeine. The weapon they most use is a battle-axe, or halberd, six foot long, the blade wherof is somewhat like a shoemaker’s knife, and without pike; the stroke wherof is deadly”.

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