'Civilizing' Gaelic Leinster

The extension of Tudor rule in the O'Byrne and O'Toole lordships

Christopher Maginn

This book charts the extension of Tudor government into the independent Gaelic lordships of the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles (Wicklow, Kildare, Dublin) from the origins of this process of expansion in the late 15th century until the abortive attempt under the Elizabethan regime to transform both lordships into an English county. Here we see an autonomous Gaelic district initially embrace its entrance into the fold of a nascent Tudor administrative unit before ultimately rejecting, through armed rebellion, what had become intrusive English military rule and cultural domination.

Winner of the 2005 NUI Irish Historical Research Prize. This prize is offered in alternate years, for the best work of Irish historical research, published for the first time by any student or graduate of National University of Ireland.

Christopher Maginn holds a PhD in history and is currently an Associate Professor of History at Fordham University in New York. He has previously taught in the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI, Galway.