Of Kerns and Gallowglasses - ‘‘tis a wonderful book!

 

Well I won’t finish that sentence off with ‘to be sure, to be sure!’ Or my Irish great-grand parents, if they were still with us (?) would probably have something say about stereotyping people……

No. 24 of Helion’s ‘from Retinue to Regiment 1452-1618 covering the Irish armies of the sixteenth century is absolutely great. I write as someone with a limited knowledge of Irish armies between 1487 and 1587 but a good understanding of the politics of the time. I think. This interest has certainly been enough over the years to have the Elizabethan-Irish wars on my list of projects to ponder, and even work out army lists and a shopping list.

I digress. This is quite a meaty book by the standards of other Helion books in this series; 287 pages. It’s still not a massive tome but it certainly packs in an incredible amount of information (stuff) within its covers. The author Robert Gresh has produced a tremendously fun-to-read and informative book about a subject not often written about. Yes, the Tudor period, Elizabeth and Essex and all that stuff gets fair coverage but I am unaware of anything that goes any way to explained the Irish Wars, and to some extent as well, 15th and 16th century Irish society in general, from the perspective of the home team. 

I don’t know really what else to say. The illustrations are as one would expect from Helion, plentiful and appropriate to the subject, the colour plates in the centre of the book are eight pages of glorious imagery. There are some quite useful maps, especially the one showing the areas under the control of the myriad of Irish lords. It certainly helps with orienting oneself when reading the narrative. 

The chapters cover such subjects as ‘The Power of Irishmen’ to the different troops types found within a typical Irish army, be they Gallowglass, Kern, Redshanks or the light horse, to naval issues, castles, banners, even music. I particularly liked the section on the Wilde Irish Living History Group. 

This is a great addition to the series and an enjoyable and informative read. Whether this era is your ‘thing’ or not this is well worth the time spent reading it. Highly recommended and worth a space on anybody’s bookcase.

ISBN 978-1-804513-54-5      soft covers.    287 pages.