The Irish Chateaux: In Search of the Descendants of the Wild Geese

The Irish Chateaux looks back over centuries of migration between Ireland and France, beginning with the ‘flight of the earls’ in 1607 when military defeat at Kinsale and exile initiated a tradition sustained by political and economic necessity in subsequent years. The text, lavishly illustrated by over fifty pen-and-ink drawings, tells the stories of individual families and their chateaux, which number among the finest buildings in France. Soldiers, slavers, wine-producers, statesmen and entrepreneurs, many bear illustrious names and made lasting contributions to their host culture - the O’Mahonys and the Butlers of northern France, the Walshs of the Loire, the Hennessys of Cognac, the Bartons, Boyds and O’ Byrnes of Bordeaux and Aquitaine, the MacMahons of Burgundy, the O’Neills and de Plunketts of Paris, the Dillons, MacCarthys and O’Briens of the Irish Brigades. The narrative begins and ends with Irish women memoirists: the celebrated Mme de la Tour du Pin, born Lucy Dillon; and th