Gerald Desmond, 4th Earl

Desmond, Gerald, 4th Earl, half-brother of preceding, surnamed "Gerald the Poet," succeeded to the estates and honours of the family. He married, by the King's command, Eleanor, daughter of James, 2nd Earl of Ormond, who gave her for portion the barony of Inchiquin in Imokelly. Gerald was Lord-Justice of Ireland, 1367. In 1398 he disappeared, and is fabled to live beneath the waters of Lough Gur, near Kilmallock, on whose banks he appears once every seven years. O'Donovan quotes the following concerning his character: "A nobleman of wonderful bountie, mirth, cheerfulness in conversation, charitable in his deeds, easy of access, a witty and ingenious composer of Irish poetry, and a learned and profound chronicler; and, in fine, one of the English nobility that had Irish learning and professors thereof in greatest reverence of all the English in Ireland, died penitently after receipt of the sacraments of the holy church in proper form."[134] Fragments of Anglo-Norman verse attributed to him, known as "Proverbs of the Earl of Desmond," survive.

Sources

134. Four Masters, Annals of Ireland by the: Translated and Edited by John O'Donovan. 7 vols. Dublin, 1856.

147. Geraldine Documents: Edited by Rev. James Graves: in Journal of the Archaeological Association of Ireland, October, 1869.

147a. Gillespie, Major-General Sir Robert R., Memoir. London, 1816.

216. Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.