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

A CLASSIC OF THE GALLOGLAS FAMILIES

With maps, illustrations and genealogies of the MacSweeneys, Clan Donald and the O’Neills of Tír Eoghain. With an introduction by Professor Eoin MacNeill. Dublin: By Éamonn de Búrca, for Edmund Burke Publisher, 1996. Demy octavo. pp. xxi, 391. Superb facsimile reprint, bound in full buckram, with head and tail bands. In coloured dustjacket depicting three galloglasses and an Irish Foot Soldier of the 16th century.
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”.