MacCARTHY, Daniel. The Life and Letters of Florence MacCarthy Reagh, Tanist of Carbery, MacCarthy Mor, with some portion of “The History of the Ancient Families of the South of Ireland”, Compiled solely from unpublished documents in Her Majesty’s State Paper Office. By Daniel MacCarthy (Glas), of Gleann-a-Chroim. 

London: Longmans, Green. & Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1867. First edition. pp. xii, 515. Titlepage printed in red and black. Blue cloth, MacCarthy armorial seal in gilt on upper cover, title in gilt on rebacked spine. Top edge uncut. A very good copy of a very scarce item.

Florence (Finian, Finghín) MacCarthy Reagh (c.1562–c.1640), Gaelic chieftain and scholar, was born probably at Kilbrittan castle, eldest son of Sir Donough MacCarthy Reagh (d. 1576). His mother was a Geraldine, being the sister of Maurice of Desmond and the aunt of the last earl of Desmond. His father, being the MacCarthy Reagh, lord of Carbery in west Cork, was noted for his loyalty to the crown. Nonetheless he was careful to tutor his son in the brutal arts of Gaelic politics, and the young Finian was soon attracting the attention of the local authorities for his role in imposing exactions and threatening his father’s dependants. When Sir Donough died (1576) the chieftainship passed to his younger brother, Sir Owen, according to established MacCarthy custom; but he did leave his son with twenty-seven ploughlands worth £1,500 a year. Not yet of age, Finian became a ward of the president of Munster, Sir William Drury. Shortly after he came of age (c.1578) he entered the royal army to serve with 300 of his own men, as the Desmond rebellion was then raging throughout Munster. Finian and his men appear to have acquitted themselves well in the fighting.

Following the final suppression of the Desmond rebellion (1583), Finian travelled to London, where he was generously treated by the queen, receiving £1,000 and an annual pension of £100. He spent the next five years dividing his time between the court and Munster. He was also present for the opening of the 1585 Irish parliament in Dublin. During this period Finian adopted all the airs of a typical English courtier, taking up fencing and anglicising his name to Florence. Years later his kinsmen would mock his English attire and a rival would call him a counterfeit Irishman. Yet he nurtured considerable ambitions of becoming an independent and powerful Gaelic overlord. He also remained avowedly Catholic: after he came of age he refused to sue for his livery – thus placing his entire estate in jeopardy – because it would have entailed taking the oath of supremacy. Even more significantly he displayed a fascination with Spanish culture: he was able to speak Spanish by 1588, and had many relatives in the Spanish army and at the court in Madrid. His chameleon-like demeanour caused most of his contemporaries to mistrust him.

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