Myth Of The Geraldines Analysis

By the nineteenth century the Geraldines, despite being among the original 'conquistadors' of Ireland in the twelfth century, came to represent 'the essence of all things Gaelic … and the struggle for freedom from English rule' (p. 16). This enduring perception is a testament to the extensive mythology surrounding the Geraldines that began almost immediately from their involvement in Ireland and was deliberately cultivated and refined in the later Middle Ages. Such stories were later ransacked for political and polemical purposes with little consideration given to the immediate contexts that produced them. Thus, this edited collection of essays aims to subject the literary and historical evidence that underpins the 'Myth of the Geraldines'

A good example of these themes can be found in the treatment of the Desmond branch by a number of the contributors. Chapters by Robin Frame and Peter Crooks illustrate how the fortunes of the Desmond earls of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were entwined with English courtly politics. By the sixteenth century, however, the Desmonds had cultivated significant contacts on the Continent in order to protect their patrimony. Thus, they were increasingly viewed with suspicion particularly in light of confessional tensions that plagued Europe after the Reformation. David Edwards’s thought-provoking reassessment of the causes of the second Desmond rebellion refocuses our attention on the tensions between the fourteenth earl of Desmond and the English Queen Elizabeth’s Irish officials. Coveting his landholdings and resentful of his influence, they alleged that Desmond was a militant Catholic, which undermined the relationship between Elizabeth and Desmond. These allegations profoundly shaped subsequent historiography that presented Desmond’s actions as a defence of the Catholic faith as opposed to a desire to protect his estates as argued convincingly by Edwards. At the same time, as detailed in Katherine Simms’s superlative chapter on the Geraldines and Gaelic culture, Irish poets consequently downplayed the Anglo-Norman origin of the Desmonds and proclaimed them