Page 175 - Demo

Chapter Six 175 King Henry V111 had taken the irst step towards the complete conquest of the Irish
people.
The Geraldines
(A poem by Thomas Davis)
The Geraldines! The Geraldines!-‘tis true, in Strongbow’s van,
By lawless force, as conquerors, their Irish reign began;
But oh! Through many a dark campaign they proved their prowess stern, In Leinster’s plains, in Munster’s vales, on king and chief and kerne.
These Geraldines! These Geraldines!-not long our air they breathed, Not long they fed on venison, in Irish water seethed;
Not often had their children been by Irish mothers nursed,
When from their full and genial hearts an Irish feeling burst.
Ye Geraldines! ye Geraldines, since Silken Thomas lung
King Henry’s sword on council board, the English thanes among, Ye never ceased to battle brave against the English sway,
Though axe and brand and treachery your proudest cut away.
By smashing the authority of the Geraldines of Kildare, the English monarchy had already progressed a considerable way towards suppressing the Sean-Ghaill, and during the remainder of the sixteenth century, it sought to extend its triumphant authority over the Sean-Ghaill and Gaedhil alike and so achieve the conquest of all Ireland. Now the early decades of the sixteenth century saw a great many social and political changes in Europe, alongside which hugely important developments were made in the ield of science, espe- cially in the science of warfare.
It was about this time, for instance, that military commanders began to recognize and grasp the immense possibilities of gunpowder, and as we have just seen, during the Rebel- lion of Silken Thomas, the Gaedhil had their irst experience of cannon bombardment when Skeington easily battered down the stout, and until this time, impregnable walls of Maynooth Castle.
Hitherto, the issues at stake in the struggle with England had been the sovereignty of