Principality of Desmond

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Desmond around 1300

Desmond (Irish: Deas-Mhumhain , which means South Munster ) was a historic kingdom or historic county on the south-west coast of Ireland . It comprised the Counties of Cork and Kerry and was divided into these in 1606.

Just as Desmond comes from the Gaelic "Deas-Mhumhain" and means South Munster, there are other area names : - Thomond " Tuath -Mhumhain" (North Munster), Ormond "Ur-Mhumhain" (East Munster) and Iarmond " Iar-Mhumhain ”(West Munster). After the 14th century, the term Desmond was used to denote the domain of the Irish-Gaelic MacCarthy Mor clan, as well as the domain of the "Earls of Desmond".

After the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 , the title "Earl of Desmond" was awarded in 1329 to Maurice FitzGerald. The Fitzgeralds were popular with the people and were said to have become more Irish than the Irish . Their resistance to English influence resulted in the Desmond Rebellions of 1569–1573 and 1579–1583.

literature

  • Colm Lennon: Sixteenth Century Ireland - The Incomplete Conquest , Dublin 1994.
  • Edward O'Mahony, Baltimore, the O'Driscolls, and the end of Gaelic civilization, 1538-1615 , Mizen Journal, no.8 (2000): 110-127.
  • Nicholas Canny, Making Ireland British 1580-1650 , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001.