For hundreds of years, England held sway over Ireland.  Their hegemony ranged from tyranny and
brutal murder to loose control, but always, generation after generation, there
was the yoke of English rule. 
Lands were taken from peasants and given to rich English nobles.  Religious war and cruelty were
common.  Favoritism, power hunger,
greed, fraud, and nepotism dominated the governance of the island.  But always and throughout, there was
strong resistance to English rule and defiant rebellion led by courageous
Rascals.             

            Thomas
FitzGerald, the eighth earl of Kildare, whom the Irish called Gerrold Mor, was
an Englishman through and through. 
He'd married a cousin of the King of England, and with his induction
into the Order of the Garter, he'd been awarded one of the king's highest
honors.  But consistent with a long
line of English nobleman in Ireland, he would also be accused of being more
Irish than English, becoming instrumental in Ireland's resistance to English
domination.

            Mor
served as the English governor of Ireland for more than thirty years, but he
did so by twice openly defying English kings.  In 1478, when emissaries from King Edward IV were sent to
Ireland to replace him, Mor simply refused.  Then in 1488 Mor did it again.  By 1494 the English monarchy had had enough, and king Henry
VII sent an army to Ireland to capture power from Mor and arrest him.  After a period, Mor was released, but
only under the condition that he leave his son behind in England as a pledge of
loyalty and insurance of obedience.

            Mor's
willful stands against England made him very popular in Ireland.  But he was also fiercely opposed by
other factions on the island.  A
tireless politician, Mor built strong alliances with Gaelic chieftains, and
used military might to defeat his enemies.  As one English king said of him, "He is meet to rule
all Ireland, seeing as all Ireland cannot rule him."  In fact, it was his near total sway
over the island that fostered the jealousy of the English kings.

            As
a ruler, Mor did much for the cause of unifying the many factions of
Ireland.   He also helped
usher in the Renaissance in Ireland by aiding in the establishment of libraries
and schools, and he encouraged Gaelic art and literature. 

            As
a Rascal on an island of Rascals, Mor was impressive with his accomplishments
of unification and resistance to English dominance.  As Malachy McCourt wrote, "Gerrold Mor had ruled
Kildare and the English pale for nearly forty years, and for the most part had
remained a popular ruler during the entirety.  He had kept a large range of English kings from meddling too
drastically in the affairs of Ireland and had stretched his influence over much
of the island.  Gerrold Mor was
surely his own man, and he began a family dynasty that would result in proud
Anglo-Irish defiance."