Archive | November, 2013

Richard 2nd Earl of Clanricarde (Part I)

© Donal G. Burke 2013 On the death of Ulick na gceann Burke 1st Earl of Clanricarde in 1543 a great war broke out for the control of the lordship. His complicated marital affairs provided confusion with regard to the succession to his lands and title. His son Richard was a minor at his father’s […]

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Ulick 1st Earl of Clanricarde

© Donal G. Burke 2013 At the beginning of the sixteenth century only a small area about Dublin, known as the Pale, was effectively under English law. Elsewhere, Gaelic law and customs prevailed in varying degrees. Even in a lordship ruled by those of Anglo-Norman descent, such as Clanricarde, Gaelic law was adhered to. The […]

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Mrs. French, gifted with so fine an ear

Frustrated with a vigorous mind trapped within an aging body, the poet W.B. Yeats climbed to the top of his tower in County Galway, and, ‘under the day’s declining beam’ stared out over the surrounding countryside. From the height of his tower’s battlements the landscape resonated with images and memories from his and the region’s past, images he […]

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