The "Fitzgeralds," or "Geraldines," were powerful Anglo-Irish
lords in counties Offaly and Kildare, west of Dublin.
Characters in Ulysses refer often to the 10th Earl
of Kildare, Silken Thomas,
who mounted a rebellion against the English king. But Thomas'
grandfather, the so-called Great Earl, also mentioned in Wandering
Rocks, was a more formidable leader.
The 8th Earl of Kildare, Gerald FitzGerald (Gearoid Mór
FitzGerald), often called The Great Earl (An Iarla Mór) or
"the uncrowned King of Ireland," served as Lord Deputy of
Ireland for the Yorks and Tudors during most of the years from
1477 to 1513. His son, also named Gerald, was the 9th Earl of
Kildare from 1513 to 1534, and his grandson Thomas succeeded
his father in 1534.
In Wandering Rocks Ned Lambert tells J. J. O'Molloy
that the reverend Hugh C. Love is "writing a book
about the Fitzgeralds." He kicks himself for not
having told the clergyman a good one about The Great Earl: "—God!
he cried. I forgot to tell him that one about the earl of
Kildare after he set fire to Cashel cathedral. You know that
one? I'm bloody sorry I did it, says
he, but I declare to God I thought the archbishop
was inside. He mightn't like it, though. What?
God, I'll tell him anyhow. That was the great earl, the
Fitzgerald Mor. Hot members they were all of them, the
Geraldines."
The Great Earl was a force to be reckoned with. Despite his
involvement in the Lambert
Simnel conspiracy in 1487, Henry VII kept him on as Lord
Deputy until 1494, when he removed him and had him imprisoned
in the Tower of London. At trial in 1496, however, FitzGerald
convinced the king that the alternatives to his rule were much
worse. Henry is reported to have said, "All Ireland cannot
govern this Earl; then let this Earl govern all Ireland."
