The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland: The Making of a Myth, Peter Crooks & Sean Duffy (editors); Four Courts Press, 2016, 408pp., €50 hard, ISBN978-1-84882-571-2.

From the earliest moments of their involvement in Ireland, the Geraldines (or FitzGeralds) - the greatest of the Anglo-Norman dynasties established in Ireland after 1169 - became shrouded in myths, often of their own creation. This fund of mythology was later appropriated for political and polemical uses by writers across the post-medieval centuries up to the early decades of the Irish Free State.

This book, the proceedings of the inaugural Trinity Medieval Ireland Symposium held in September 2013 to mark the 500th anniversary of the Great Earl’s death in September 1513, examines the ‘myth of the Geraldines’ in two senses: the literary and historical evidence from the Middle Ages and its reception from the 16th century onwards; and the myths and misconceptions that have encrusted around aspects of Geraldine history in historical scholarship.

The book traces the history of the Great Earl’s family from its origins to the sixteenth century. Some of Ireland’s finest historians offer fresh appraisals of the origins of the Geraldines (Seán Duffy); the role of Giraldus Cambrensis in shaping the self-image of his own family (Huw Pryce); the significance of the Geraldines as conquerors (Colin Veach), castle-builders (Linzi Simpson) and colonizers (Brendan Smith); the astonishing ramification of the family (Paul MacCotter); the ‘rebellious’ reputation of the first earl of Desmond (Robin Frame); and the brutal execution in 1468 of his great-grandson, the seventh earl of Desmond, ‘slain by the swords of the wicked, or may I say a martyr’ wrote one chronicler (Peter Crooks).

The authors also investigate Geraldine engagement with Gaelic culture (Katharine Simms) and the culture of early Renaissance Europe (Aisling Byrne), as well as the family’s dealings with the native Irish (Sparky Booker), culminating in the remarkable career of the Great Earl (Steven G. Ellis) and the disastrous Desmond Rebellion (David Edwards). The book considers, too, the reception of the ‘myth’ of the Geraldines from the sixteenth century onwards, including the romance of ‘Silken Thomas’ (Ciaran Brady) and the battle for the legacy of the Geraldines in nineteenth-century Ireland (Ruairí Cullen).