‘Rebell privy counsellors’: the first Catholic confederate supreme council, July 1642

What was the composition of the first supreme council elected in June 1642 prior to the first formal meeting of the Association of Confederate Catholics of Ireland the following October, a list that until now has remained elusive? The outbreak of rebellion in Ulster in October 1641 initiated a period of political turmoil that spread … Read more

Peter Lacy, ‘the Prince Eugene of Muscovy

Peter Edmund Lacy/Pyotr Petrovich Lasci (1678–1751) of Killeedy, Co. Limerick, was the son of Pierce Edmund de Lacy of Ballingarry and his wife Maria (née Courtney). He joined the regiment of his uncle, Colonel John Lacy, as an ensign in the Prince of Wales’ Regiment of Irish Foot at the beginning of the Jacobite/Williamite War … Read more

Inquisitions,Post Mortem and Inquisitions Post Attainder—lesser-used sources for Irish genealogy

The Inquisitions are ‘treasury’ documents, recording the rights and privileges of the crown over land held by tenants-in-chief in Ireland. The Inquisitions Post Mortem were surveys undertaken by the court of chancery or exchequer at the time of death of the landholder. The earliest start in 1276 but there is a notable gap between the … Read more

Irish Gothic Architecture: construction, decay and reinvention edited by Roger Stalley

ISBN: 978-905569-70-0 Published by Wordwell in December 2012 226pp + illustrations Price €35 Irish Gothic Architecture: construction, decay and reinvention edited by Roger Stalley The volume aims to reshape the study of Gothic architecture in Ireland, examining the way it was perceived and exploited not just in the Middle Ages but in later periods as … Read more