About the Author

Ger Burke spent the years of early childhood on a farm in Co Galway. Having lived in London and later Boston Ger returned to live in Co Mayo. My Father's Lands was started in Holyoke College, Massachusetts and finished on the shores of Galway Bay.

A former teacher of English and History Ger has had many literary successes, both in print and radio, since becoming a full-time writer.

My Father's Lands is a first novel.

HISTORICAL NOTE

By 1540 King Henry VIII was finding it expensive to maintain an army in Ireland. Also he wanted to reduce religious opposition to his split with Rome. Therefore he needed to seek a peaceful solution to his Irish problems. To this end a conciliatory treaty was drawn up with the Irish lords called Surrender and re-grant.

The core of this treaty was that, instead of being treated as enemies, the Irish were now to be accepted as royal subjects under English law. However, to qualify for this new status the chieftains had to surrender their lands to England and be re-granted them under English law, together with an English title, such as Baron or Earl.

Under the old Irish system the lands of a ruled territory belonged to the entire clan. Succession was governed by the law of Deirbhfhine and was elective, with the rights of election confined to male members of the sept whose great-grandfathers, grand-fathers or fathers, had previously been chieftains.

Under Surrender and re-grant , however, the chief was made sole owner of the lands with power to bequeath them to his heirs.

Surrender and re-grant made Primogeniture a legal substitute for Deirbhfhine so that now the eldest surviving son was entitled to succeed a dead or deposed father.

The clash between the Irish law of Deirbhfhine and the English law of Primogeniture led to bitter disputes among the Gaelic clans, resulting in civil wars within many surrendered and re-granted territories.

Once the chiefs had surrendered their lands to the crown, they could keep them only as long as they remained loyal.

Surrender and re-grant, therefore, left the Irish exposed to the horrors of plantations which the treaty brought in its wake.

For example during the reign of Queen Mary Tudor the O'Mores and O'Connors were found treasonous because of their attacks on the Pale. This resulted in their lands being declared forfeit to the crown. Thus the first plantation in Ireland, The Plantation of Laois and Offaly was made.

Following the Desmond rebellion in Munster Elizabeth Tudor (Mary's half-sister) confiscated the lands of Munster and had them planted with loyal Englishmen..

King James Stuart was quick to follow the Tudor example. During (his cousin) Queen Elizabeth's reign Hugh O'Neill and Hugh O'Donnell had rebelled. Tthis gave James a legal basis to confiscate much land in Ulster leading to the Plantation of Ulster of 1609/10.

My Father's Lands tells the story of that horrific aftermath to the treaty of Surrender and re-grant .

 

Title                        My Father's Lands
Author                      Ger Burke
Subject classification    Fiction
Format/extent             153x229 mm, 468 pp
Publication date          October 2009
Price                         €20-00 HB
ISBN                        978-1-907017-01-8