| �Erin�s Blood Royal� by Peter Beresford Ellis � published by Constable in 1999 This book review appeared in the Catholic Herald on 24.09.99. Book review by Brian Brindley |
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| In spite of its unappealing title, �Erin's Blood Royal� is an interesting book on an interesting subject - the Irish Chiefs of the Name or, as the author prefers to call them, �The Gaelic Noble Dynasties of Ireland�. These are the Irish gentlemen whose surnames are prefixed with �The� instead of �Mr�, and whose wives are called �The Madam. . .�, and whose family seats are generally called �Castle. . .�. They are indeed descendants of ancient kings and princes, dating back before Pope Adrian IV's Bull Laudabiliter of 1155 which encouraged Henry II of England to invade Ireland, and King Henry VIII's adoption of the style �King of Ireland� in 1541. I have come across two of these Chiefs in my life, and naturally I began by looking them up. There, sure enough, was The O'Donovan, revealing himself by quotation and photograph to be a conscientious country landowner, expressing very sensible views about his title, and saying generous things about the Catholic Church, though the O'Donovans have been Protestants for generations, and he himself is a member of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland. Next I looked for the Knight of Glin, a scholar of international repute, who moves in the highest circles in Dublin and London, and whose title is universally recognised. To my surprise, there was not so much as a mention of him. No doubt Mr Ellis has the best of reasons for excluding him, but he does not tell us what they are. One sentence: I have not included the Knight of Glin and the Knight of Kerry because . . .� would have sufficed. Mr Ellis's readers are surely entitled to be taken into his confidence, but they are not. Indeed, as I read the whole book, I was troubled by a certain lack of candour on the author�s part. I do not for the moment suggest that he has falsified any of the evidence, but I feel that he has so selected and arranged it as to support a thesis of his own. The buzz-phrase �hidden agenda� kept popping into my mind. Mr Ellis�s bias is plain to see: he is no Anglophile. He is not in favour of the English, or of the Anglicised Irish, and he is particularly severe on those Irish who, across the centuries, have made their careers in the service of Britain. He does, however, have the grace to print an anecdote of a Dubliner in 1939 who, told that Ireland was remaining neutral (in the 1939-45 war) replied, �Good, and who are we neutral against ?� His attitude is more characteristic of Irish-Americans than of the Irish people I am fortunate enough to encounter. In pursuit of his bias, he is hostile to the English system of law, imposed by statute in the reign of James I, and still continued in the Republic of Ireland. He is keen to assert the survival of the ancient Irish system of justice administered by the Brehons. In particular, he insists that the inheritance of the title of Chief is and always has been governed by the law of Tanistry - the nomination of an heir during, the lifetime of a Chief with, theoretically, the consent of all male descendants. This is an ancient and genuine form of dynastic law; it prevailed in the Ottoman Empire, and we saw it in operation a few months ago in the kingdom of Jordan; essentially, it is the route by which Don Juan Carlos became King of Spain, and it is invoked from time to time by the Grimaldis, Princes of Monaco, whenever primogeniture would get them into difficulties. But there is no evidence that at any time since the 17th century the title of Chief of the Name has been inherited other than through the English system of male primogeniture, and this is still adopted by the Chief Herald of Ireland, the officer of the Republic appointed to look after such matters in succession to Ulster King of Arms. These are deep and complicated matters, and I am no expert; I do not suppose that there are more than half a dozen scholars who know enough about Brehon law to answer Mr Ellis; I could wish for a book by another expert in the field who takes a different view. Of the 20 Chiefs listed in the book, only eight (by my reckoning) live in Ireland. Six or seven are members of the nobility of Catholic countries (several of them claiming Jacobite peerages as well); they are descendants of those �Wild Geese� who fled from Ireland in the times of persecution rather than give up the Old Faith, and who rose to positions of distinction in their adopted countries. The juxtaposition of Irish and Spanish and Portuguese titles is somehow unintentionally comic: eg The O'Neill M�r, Prince of Tyrone, Marques de la Granja y del Norte, Conde de Benagiar. Two are citizens of the USA, one in oil, the other in tank trailers. The O�Donel is a Catholic missionary priest in Africa, his heir is the Spanish Duke of Tetuan. The Fox runs a delicatessen business in Australia. Although only one of the Chiefs lives permanently in England, many of them are thoroughly Anglicised, having attended English public schools and sending their sons to them, Eton and Stonyhurst being the favourites. At least five of them are Protestants. Across the centuries, since 1541, leaving aside those who migrated to Catholic countries, most of those who have risen to any distinction have done so in the service of the English Crown; several of them hold British peerages. Mr Ellis is not amused. The book as a whole is pervaded by the benign spirit of Terence Francis, The MacCarthy M�r, Prince of Desmond. He writes a Foreword, an ancestor of his contributes an epigraph, he appears in no fewer than five photographs (often wearing the stars and medals of his foreign orders and decorations). We are told that he �runs his household [which is in Tangier] in the same courtly manner of his ancestors�; well, it was noted in the 18th century that The MacDermott, Prince of Coolavin, �though he has not above two hundred pounds a year, will not admit his children to sit down in his presence�. The MacCarthy M�r is unmarried, and therefore happily relieved of the temptation to indulge in this particular manifestation of courtliness. He has been �bestowed with over a score of knighthoods, orders, and honours�; he is also a �Kentucky Colonel� (like Col Saunders) twice over. He is a member the Eastern Orthodox Church and fiercely anti-Catholic in his views. He is also head of an outfit called Niadh Nask, which has been recognised by a tribunal of arbitration sitting in Italy as �a Dynastic honour of non-Chivalric knighthood� of which he enjoys �absolute ownership� and to which he alone appoints at will, and which includes among its members the (Muslim) King Leka of Albania and Irish Prime Ministers Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds. In the light of all this, it is something of a shock to read, in a hastily-drafted prefatory note, that in June 1999 the Chief Herald of Ireland withdrew his recognition from The MacCarthy M�r; it is hinted that the title may be recognised as belonging to a Pretender, of whose claims Mr Ellis gives a very scornful account indeed; �But who Pretender is and who is King, God bless us all, that's quite another thing!" Where all this will leave the distinguished members of Niadh Nask appointed by Terence Francis, I cannot speculate. If Mr Ellis's book ever runs to a second edition, it will call for substantial revision. It has no pretensions to being a work of scholarship, but it is a racy and readable canter down some by-ways of Irish (and Anglo-lrish) history. It is only when it reaches the 20th century that it must be taken with a grain, and more than a grain, of salt. Fun reading for a wet weekend. ENDS |
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| We are indebted to the 'Catholic Herald' for their kind permission to reproduce this article. |