Publisher's Synopsis
The focus of the book is on the medieval and early modern Gaelic and gaelicized Norman-Irish lordships of Ireland. More precisely, it is a case study of the rise, fall and aftermath of two such lordships in east County Mayo: the Norman-Irish de Exeter Jordans (which founder was known as Jordan de Courcy) and the Jordan Duff (or Dubh) lordship, the latter a branch of another Norman-Irish lordship, the Costellos. Soon after the 1169 invasion of Ireland by mercenaries drawn from the Norman diaspora in England, these Norman invaders would graft themselves onto the old-Gaelic world, forming a new layer of aristocratic society along with the Gaelic kings and chieftains.
Additionally, the book will examine the collapse of this Gaelic and gaelicized Norman-Irish landed society, which was cemented entering the eighteenth century, when the penurious condition of the overwhelming majority of these lordships' descendants was in stark contrast with the elevation of a new ruling and propertied elite, the Protestant Ascendancy. The experience of these descendants, divested of power, land ownership and basic rights, some of whom having migrated, likely as squatters, to the remote mountain glens in Crossmolina and Addergoole parishes near Nephin Mountain (Co. Mayo) will be analyzed.
