Fitz Gerald or Mac Garrett or Mac Geralt. Gaelicized as Mheic Gearailt who were collectively known as the "Gherardini" - Italian - Welsh - Norman origins (Descended from a son of Geriwald - geri / spear / wald - rule. English Barons in Co. Waterford / Munster Province, English Dukes in Co. Kildare / Southern Central Leinster, English Earls in Co. Laois and Co. Kildare / Southern Leinster, Desmond / Co. Cork and Co. Kerry / Southern Munster, and Co. Limerick / North - West Munster. English Knights in Co. Limerick and Co. Kerry.  English Lords in Co. Limerick, Co. Wicklow / Southern Leinster and Co. Cork. They were also in Co. Offaly, Co. Carlow and Co. Wexford / Southern Leinster and Co. Tipperary / North Eastern Munster. They were also the English Lords of Vesci in Co. Clare in the north - west of Northern Munster.

    Their original ancestor in Wales was Walter Fitz Other, who was the keeper of the Windsor Forest in the late 11th Century AD, whose son, Gerald / Geriwald was the Constable of Pembroke Castle there. Walter who was a son of Gerald also was with Strongbow / Richard de Clare during the Anglo - Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169 AD and he adopted Fitz Gerald (Descended from a Son of Gerald as his surname.) (Fitz being a misnomer of Fils (son in French) As the Earls of Desmond they would dominate early on under the English Monarchy.

     Catherine the 2nd wife of the 12th Earl of Desmond was born at Dromana to the north of Villiers Town on the River Blackwater in Co. Waterford in the - east of the Munster Province and died at the great old age of 110 years. Lisfinny Castle in Co. Wexford in the south - east of Southern Leinster was also a Desmond stronghold and their War Cry was Malahar Abu. They also had Glin Castle in Co. Limerick and their Kilmurray Castle to the north of Slievesue in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster.

     In 1326 AD the Earl of Kildare who was from another of their branches, which would come to dominate later under the English Monarchy, rebuilt the Castle of the O Donovans on the Margue River in Co. Limerick in the mid - north - west of Munster

     In 1333 AD the Earl of Desmond assisted the English King, Edward III against the Scots with his Irish forces and his 3 cousins were put in command under him at the Battle of Halidon Hill  for which they were knighted as the Knights of Kerry, the Knights of Glin, the White Knight and the Black and Green Knights noted by the color of their armor. Their Fitz Gerald Battle Cry was Cromadh Abu / Croom Forever.

     In 1340 AD they built a Castle at Croom in Co. Limerick and Gerald was to be the 4th Earl of Desmond in the 14th Century AD who built the Franciscan Friary at Askeaton in Co. Limerick who in 1398 AD personally and mysteriously disappeared and was sighted as a ghost at Loch Gur with his knights galloping around the surface.

    James the 6th Earl of Desmond restored it in the 15th Century AD. The Killough Castle / Black Castle on the southern end of Knockadoon, which is now in ruins, was previously also a Desmond stronghold. During the Munster Rebellion against the English religious and ethnic oppression it was held by the Sugan / Straw Earl under John Fitz Thomas. The White Knights were associated with Kilmallock in Co. Limerick and the last one Edmond who died in 1608 AD was buried in a Tomb there at the Dominican Friary, which was was ransacked often under the Tudors, and Oliver Cromwell was also to destroy the fortifications there. Because Edmond was to betray his kinsmen the Earl of Desmond for a reward of 1,000 pounds from Elizabeth 1st his descendants changed their name and are now known as Fitz Gibbon.

     Garrett Fitz Gerald married all of his children into the main Irish Gaelic Families and this allowed him to maintain control over the Irish without too much trouble until Henry V111 had other plans and wanted him out of the way and removed him twice from office and put in English commanders and eventually imprisoned him in the Tower of London. Later he also executed his son, "Silken Thomas" Fitz Gerald and his 5 uncles in the Tower of London and Confiscated their Irish lands, and in much later times a parchment was found in the Tower of London containing 32 Fitz Gerald names with 16 being executed and the rest with an Attainder (Off with their Heads) against them. 100,000 acres was also Confiscated from the estate of Gerald the 16th Earl of Desmond by Elizabeth 1st in Co. Limerick and given over to English families, the Annesleys, Barkleys, Billingsleys, Bouchiers, Carters, Courtenays, Fittons, Mannerings, Stroudes, Trenchards, Thorntons and Uthereds.

     The English had one of the main Fitz Gerald family branches turn non - Catholic to hold onto their remaining lands and this then brought about further decline in their fortunes as from this line came George Robert Fitz Gerald of Desmond who thought only of himself as the actual English Earl of Desmond who was then planted from Co. Waterford in the south - east of the Munster Province to Castlebar in Co. Mayo in the mid - west of the Connacht Province. His father, George was an officer in the Austrian army and his mother was Lady Mary Hervey, the sister to the English Earl of Bristol who was also the Church of England Bishop of Derry. By then they had an Estate known as Turlough Park, which was situated 3 mile north of Castlebar, and he was reared in England for an English purpose and sent to Co. Galway in Southern Connacht in the English army. In 1770 AD he married Jane Connelly who was a sister to Thomas Connolly of Castletown who had married the daughter of the English Duke of Leinster, and in 1773 AD as a well - known dueler he returned from France to Ireland to their 2 properties Turlough Park and Rockingham, which was near the English Binghams in Co. Mayo. He raised the Turlough Volunteers as his own private army in fear of a French invasion and took a shot at Denis Browne / Lord Altamontad and also shot his wolfhound as he was upset because Lord Altamontad had not shown any charity to the poor who called at his door. He was then also put in prison for ill - treating his father, who he had chained to a bear and imprisoned in a cave on the property. He was a staunch non - Catholic and German Hanoverian sympathizer, which was to lead onto the death of Patrick Randall Mac Donnell a Catholic attorney who had been elected the Colonel of the Co. Mayo Volunteers. George Robert Fitz Gerald wanted this position so badly himself that he shot the dogs belonging to the citizens of Castlebar for voting for Mac Donnell and decided to kill him also. In 1786 AD on February the 21st he had 100 men from the Turlough Militia arrest Mac Donnell and kill him along with one of his friends, and the next day troops were sent to arrest him at Turlough House and he was put in Castlebar prison were the mob tried to lynch him. On June 11th: Barry Yelverton the Lord Chief Baron was his judge and the Attorney General was his kinsman, John "Black Jack" Fitz Gibbon, from the Ascendancy who later became Lord Clare, who was the prosecutor, and he was executed at 38 years of age. His uncle, Lord Bristol the Church of England Bishop of Derry, was away at the time and could not protect him and he was initially buried beneath the round tower at Turlough House (The Fitz Gibbons had originally been the Catholic Fitz Geralds as mentioned previously.) The Fitz Geralds also Gaelicized their name as Mac Thomas and Mac Maurice.

Geraldyn -