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The History of the County of Mayo to the Close of the Sixteenth Century Hubert Thomas Knox Books

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This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.

The History of the County of Mayo to the Close of the Sixteenth Century Hubert Thomas Knox Books

This is a scan (or more precisely a printout of a conversion of a scan to a different software program using optical character recognition technology, which is not foolproof) of a book published, afaict, in 1908 and thus this review is necessarily of two things - the scan and the book itself.

The scan: There is good news and not so bad news. First, the not-so-bad news. The scan was almost entirely readable for substance. The spacing is bad and the scan doesn't distinguish footnotes from text well. But I could follow the text quite well. There were very few of the computer characters that some scanned books are infected with. Second, the good news is, if you buy this book, as the first page tells you, and type the barcode on the back into the publisher's website, and they will let you download an error-free PDF of the original book for free. I did this successfully. They explain / justify this mechanism by saying that it would not be economically feasible to print these books and check for errors because they sell so few copies, which makes sense to me.

Now the book itself. It covers what it says, from the earliest times captured in writing up to the end of the 16th century, shortly before the Flight of the Earls. It draws mainly on older, even ancient, works that cover all of Ireland, and excerpts out the matter that pertains to Mayo. The author appears to be well-read and the work seemed authoritative. It was somewhat difficult for me,though because, as the author's surname suggests (Knox's were substantial landlords in Mayo), the author presents a very British point of view, different from that found in the well-established industry of Irish history books. And the Irish do not come off well. Essentially, from the Middle Ages on, life in Mayo was, not unlike life on the English -Scottish border, one of incessant raids and grievances and honor killings, with peace typically dependent on hostage-holding and even at that fleeting and fitful. In this view, the Irish begin utterly uncivilized and resist mightily the English efforts to drag them into a more civilized way of life.

An example from page 39 (of the scan, which is likely not the page number of this text in the original volume): "Irish family life of the period is illustrated by the following entry for the year 1234: "Aedh O'hEghra, King of Luighne, was killed by Donnchadh, son of Duarcan O'hEghra - a house was burned over him, and he was killed in the door of the house, after coming out of it - in revenge for his having first killed his brother (i.e., Donnchadh's brother) and the five sons of his father's brother, and having blinded his other brother." On page 69,he writes of a later period (1469 - 1503) "This period is of much the same character as the preceding. Incessant petty wars of minor chieftains among themselves and family quarrels continued."

You get the picture.

The solution to the "incessant petty wars" is easily gleaned from pages 57-58: "The weakness of the country was due to the king's neglect, whereby he at last brought the colony to ruin. For it was now adopting Irish fashions rapidly. This would have been no harm if the king's authority had been upheld, and order, law, and justice made effective among the English colonists. .. but .. offences of great men ... were not punished by the king. ...

"Strong royal power only was needed to keep the country together, and to carry on the progress which had been made toward civilization of the Irish. For some certainly were adopting the civil life in the lands and towns of the settlers. By degrees those left outside such influences would have come under then when tribal was were stopped."

In that regard, one thing I learned which is pretty significant, given what Cromwell did in the 17th century was that the "scorched earth" tactic of destroying the natives' food stores etc was adopted by the English army from the Irish themselves, who did that frequently in their tribal wars. Speaking of the resistance of the Earls, Tyrone and O'Donnell, circa 1600, he writes, "After Lord Mountjoy's coming to the government in the spring, their power waned under a new system of attack.... The system which had been effective against highly organized and civilised states was ineffective against slightly organised tribes.

"The Irish method of warfare was adopted. The Irish made raids, robbed, burnt, and destroyed the enemy's county until he submitted to avoid further loss." (118-19).

That was a memorable passage.

Stories of battle and submission occupy the first 2/3 of the book, approximately. Then there are several chapters on land transfer and genealogical relationships among the leading families of the area. Although studded with unfamiliar words that I take to be ancient terminology used in connection with property transfers, there was a good deal of useful information in those pages, although one would likely need some prior knowledge, such as of townlands, to get the most out of it. But I found a reference to the surname of my ancestors, and several to the obscure townland from which they hailed. That made me really glad I had bought this book.

Product details Paperback 496 pages Publisher Ulan Press (August 31, 2012) Language English ASIN B009KJCJP6

Tags : The History of the County of Mayo to the Close of the Sixteenth Century [Hubert Thomas Knox] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work,Hubert Thomas Knox,The History of the County of Mayo to the Close of the Sixteenth Century,Ulan Press,B009KJCJP6,HISTORY General
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The History of the County of Mayo to the Close of the Sixteenth Century Hubert Thomas Knox Books Reviews

For anyone researching County Mayo's evolution, this is an essential source of information. It is a complicated subject that this book often clarifies.
Too far back in time.... Not enough on the 1840-1890 period.. Not formatted well, should have broken it down into the communities.
This is a scan (or more precisely a printout of a conversion of a scan to a different software program using optical character recognition technology, which is not foolproof) of a book published, afaict, in 1908 and thus this review is necessarily of two things - the scan and the book itself.

The scan There is good news and not so bad news. First, the not-so-bad news. The scan was almost entirely readable for substance. The spacing is bad and the scan doesn't distinguish footnotes from text well. But I could follow the text quite well. There were very few of the computer characters that some scanned books are infected with. Second, the good news is, if you buy this book, as the first page tells you, and type the barcode on the back into the publisher's website, and they will let you download an error-free PDF of the original book for free. I did this successfully. They explain / justify this mechanism by saying that it would not be economically feasible to print these books and check for errors because they sell so few copies, which makes sense to me.

Now the book itself. It covers what it says, from the earliest times captured in writing up to the end of the 16th century, shortly before the Flight of the Earls. It draws mainly on older, even ancient, works that cover all of Ireland, and excerpts out the matter that pertains to Mayo. The author appears to be well-read and the work seemed authoritative. It was somewhat difficult for me,though because, as the author's surname suggests (Knox's were substantial landlords in Mayo), the author presents a very British point of view, different from that found in the well-established industry of Irish history books. And the Irish do not come off well. Essentially, from the Middle Ages on, life in Mayo was, not unlike life on the English -Scottish border, one of incessant raids and grievances and honor killings, with peace typically dependent on hostage-holding and even at that fleeting and fitful. In this view, the Irish begin utterly uncivilized and resist mightily the English efforts to drag them into a more civilized way of life.

An example from page 39 (of the scan, which is likely not the page number of this text in the original volume) "Irish family life of the period is illustrated by the following entry for the year 1234 "Aedh O'hEghra, King of Luighne, was killed by Donnchadh, son of Duarcan O'hEghra - a house was burned over him, and he was killed in the door of the house, after coming out of it - in revenge for his having first killed his brother (i.e., Donnchadh's brother) and the five sons of his father's brother, and having blinded his other brother." On page 69,he writes of a later period (1469 - 1503) "This period is of much the same character as the preceding. Incessant petty wars of minor chieftains among themselves and family quarrels continued."

You get the picture.

The solution to the "incessant petty wars" is easily gleaned from pages 57-58 "The weakness of the country was due to the king's neglect, whereby he at last brought the colony to ruin. For it was now adopting Irish fashions rapidly. This would have been no harm if the king's authority had been upheld, and order, law, and justice made effective among the English colonists. .. but .. offences of great men ... were not punished by the king. ...

"Strong royal power only was needed to keep the country together, and to carry on the progress which had been made toward civilization of the Irish. For some certainly were adopting the civil life in the lands and towns of the settlers. By degrees those left outside such influences would have come under then when tribal was were stopped."

In that regard, one thing I learned which is pretty significant, given what Cromwell did in the 17th century was that the "scorched earth" tactic of destroying the natives' food stores etc was adopted by the English army from the Irish themselves, who did that frequently in their tribal wars. Speaking of the resistance of the Earls, Tyrone and O'Donnell, circa 1600, he writes, "After Lord Mountjoy's coming to the government in the spring, their power waned under a new system of attack.... The system which had been effective against highly organized and civilised states was ineffective against slightly organised tribes.

"The Irish method of warfare was adopted. The Irish made raids, robbed, burnt, and destroyed the enemy's county until he submitted to avoid further loss." (118-19).

That was a memorable passage.

Stories of battle and submission occupy the first 2/3 of the book, approximately. Then there are several chapters on land transfer and genealogical relationships among the leading families of the area. Although studded with unfamiliar words that I take to be ancient terminology used in connection with property transfers, there was a good deal of useful information in those pages, although one would likely need some prior knowledge, such as of townlands, to get the most out of it. But I found a reference to the surname of my ancestors, and several to the obscure townland from which they hailed. That made me really glad I had bought this book.