Tea at Trianon: More Irish Than the Irish

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, September 13, 2026

More Irish Than the Irish

From Medievalists:

Rausakeera Rath, or Ringfort, is central to the history of Mayo. It should perhaps be considered a crucible of Irish history. The Royal Rath is situated near the village of Kilmaine, County Mayo, and is centrally positioned with commanding views over the flatlands of Ellistron in the townland of Rausakeera North. Its origins are ancient, dating from the early Iron Age period (c. 600 BC – AD 400). In December 1595, a large ceremonial gathering took place at Rausakeera which would mark the end of the old Gaelic order in Ireland and lead to the total subjugation of the country by English colonists. The purpose of the pageant was the inauguration of “The Mac William.”
Mac William (Mac Uilleiam, son of William) was a pseudo-Gaelic title which passed solely through the Hiberno-Norman De Burgo, de Burgh or Burke/Bourke family. The William in question was William de Burgh, who arrived in Ireland in 1185 under the patronage of King Henry II of England, styled Lord of Ireland. By 1400, William’s progeny had spread across Ireland, with the highest concentrations being in Galway, Mayo, Limerick and Tipperary. By 1574, Galway could boast 110 castles in Burke hands and 64 in Mayo. In the Barony of Kilmaine, in an area of just 10 miles by eight, there were 41, which included 12 castles held by the MacJonyn or MacSheoinin clan, a derivative of Little John, a son of John de Burgo, later anglicised to Jennings. (Read more.)