BACK

Click here to View current Availability, Prices and Postage costs of the Society’s books

The Last Chieftain of Gaelic Ireland

by Pól Uí Súileabháin

 
 The life of Donal O’Sullivan Beare and the events that are associated with him have inspired me to research and compile this book. For over twenty years now his life and times have held a haunting fascination for me, and most of that time has been spent tediously and meticulously researching everything that has ever been recorded about him and his Sept here in Ireland.
    One of my main ambitions from the beginning was to produce a book with as much accurate information as was possible in a colourful easy-to-follow style, in an endeavour to try and bring his story to life.
    Another aim has been to research and study as far as I could his life and death in Spain, where he spent nearly fourteen years as an Irish exile. I must admit that this has proved one of the hardest parts of the book to research, but very necessary in order to fully complete his life story. Some of the most important questions regarding his Spanish exile - where exactly was he murdered, where buried and what became of his family - I endeavoured for over three years to find out.
    I have tried to be as exact and as detailed as possible. General presentation has also been an important aspect of this work. The coordination of illustrations, whether portraits, sketches, photographs, or maps, with the text is, I believe, an essential part of bringing history to life in a documentary type of way.
    Lastly, I do hope that through this book I have done some justice to that great Irish hero Donal O’Sullivan Beare, who for too long now has been left lingering in the background of Irish history, and never been given the full and deserving recognition to which his patriotism and his valour have entitled him. In fact, there is not even a statue in Ireland to honour this special Irishman’s memory he who was after all ‘The last Chieftain of Gaelic Ireland.’
Pól Uí Súileabháin.