Erin's Blood Royal: The Gaelic Noble Dynasties of Ireland

Is your family name O'Callahan? O'Carroll? O'Donoghue? O'Donovan? O'Long? MacGillycuddy? O'Brien? O'Grady? O'Connor? O'Kelly? MacDermot? O'Rourke? O'Neill? O'Dogherty? O'Donel? MacMorrow? Maguire? McCarthy? Is it any variation on these? If so, you are probably related to one of the great Gaelic noble dynasties of Ireland, dynastic clans that ruled that country until Henry VIII ended their reign and forced their obedience to the English crown. In another fascinating book from Peter Berresford Ellis, the history of Ireland is traced through the genealogy of its noble families from ancient times to the present day. While writing Erin's Blood Royal, Ellis had the cooperation of the heads of the nineteen dynasties, families that are given a "courtesy recognition" and play a highly influential role in Irish cultural life. This invitation to Ellis from the families, however, also has allowed him to look at the notorious flip side of the story - pretenders to Irish royal position. When this book was first published in the United Kindom, the scandalous "MacCarthy Mr Affair" erupted, exposing a false Irish royal in the process. Ellis chronicles the scandal and its aftermath, giving readers an interesting contemporary viewpoint on the importance of this royal rank and what some will do to achieve it. In Erin's Blood Royal, Peter Berresford Ellis charts the struggles an victories of one of the most ancient aristocracies in Europe, looks at their present day relevance and provides a fascinating guide for anyone interested in the history of Ireland, its ruling families and the lost world of Celtic royalty.

In time long past, little corners of Ireland were ruled by chiefs, kings, earls, and other nobles whose ancient dominion came to an end with the Tudor conquests of the 1500s. But, writes author Peter Ellis, the royal bloodlines continued to flow in faraway lands, the forgotten victims of "the ruthless colonial policy of an unsympathetic alien power."

With the Flight of the Wild Geese, when many nobles abandoned the island, the hereditary aristocracy of Ireland lost power and, with time, was forgotten at home. Today, emerging from exile in places like Austria and Asturias, claimants to long-abandoned titles are now popping up everywhere, and the Irish government has been obliging some of them with "courtesy recognition"--an anachronism, many Irish object, in a democratic era. Surveying the surviving nobility, Ellis examines their claims and, in the process, addresses what he rightly calls "a much-neglected area of Irish history": the blue-blood past of the MacGillycuddys, Maguires, O'Brien's, and other storied families. Heraldry buffs, royalty watchers, and claimants to long-lost thrones will find much of interest in Ellis's wanderings through the island's unhappy history. --Gregory McNamee