Gerald Fitzgerald. The Great Earl of Kildare (1456-1513). With a foreword by E. Curtis. Dublin: Phoenix publ., [1933]. First Edition. Pp xxiv, 305. Blue buckram boards in publisher’s dust jacket. A fine bright copy.

The author’s one contribution to written Irish history (he died at the age of 28), is an expansion on his award winning essay, worked on over several years and here presented as an intensive study of a remarkable figure in Irish history.

Gerald Fitzgerald, the 8th Earl of Kildare, known as “Garret the Great.” served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for much of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, wielding such immense power that he became known as the “uncrowned King of Ireland.” Bryan explores how Fitzgerald maintained dominance through a network of alliances with Gaelic and Anglo-Irish lords and navigated the treacherous politics between Ireland and the English crown