Fitz Gerald / Gaelicized as Mheic Gearailt / Collectively known as the "Gherardini" - Italian Norman origins - descended from a son of Geriwald - geri - spear / wald – rule / English Barons in Co. Waterford, English Dukes in Co. Kildare, English Earls in Co. Laois & Co. Kildare, Desmond - Co. Cork & Co. Limerick & Co. Kerry - Munster / English Knights in Co. Limerick & Co. Kerry - Western Munster, English Lords in Co. Limerick, Co. Wicklow - South East Leinster & Co. Cork - Southern Munster / They were also in Co. Offaly, Co. Carlow & Co. Wexford - Leinster & Co. Tipperary – Northern Munster / They were also the English Lords of Vesci in Co. Clare - North West Munster / Their original ancestor in Wales was Walter Fitz Other who was the keeper of the Windsor Forest in the late 11th Century whose son, Gerald - Geriwald was the Constable of Pembroke Castle there / Walter the son of Gerald was with Strongbow - Richard de Clare during the Anglo - Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169 and he adopted Fitz Gerald - Son of Gerald as his surname / (Fitz being a misnomer of Fils - son - in French)  Catherine the 2nd wife of the 12th Earl of Desmond was born at Dromana north of Villiers Town on the River Blackwater in Co. Waterford - North East Munster and died at the great old age of 110 years / Lisfinny Castle in Co. Wexford - South East 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 is north of Slievesue in Co. Kilkenny - Western Leinster / In 1326 the Earl of Kildare rebuilt the Castle of the O Donovans on the Margue River in Co. Limerick - Munster / In 1333 the Earl of Desmond assisted 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 this they were knighted as the Knights of Kerry, 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 they built a Castle at Croom in Co. Limerick and Gerald was the 4th Earl of Desmond in the 14th Century who built the Franciscan Friary at Askeaton in Co. Limerick and James the 6th Earl of Desmond restored it in the 15th Century / In 1398 at Loch Gur the ghost of the 4th Earl of Desmond who had mysteriously disappeared was sighted with his knights galloping around the surface / 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 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 was buried in a Tomb there at the Dominican Friary - It was sacked often under the Tudors and Oliver Cromwell was 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 - 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 executed his son, "Silken" Thomas Fitz Gerald and his 5 uncles in the Tower of London and Confiscated their Irish lands / 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 - Annesleys, Barkleys, Billingsleys, Bouchiers, Carters, Courtenays, Fittons, Mannerings, Stroudes, Trenchards, Thorntons & Uthereds / The English had one of the main Fitz Gerald family branches turn Protestant to hold onto their remaining lands - From this line George Robert Fitz Gerald of Desmond who thought only of himself as the actual Earl was then planted from Co. Waterford to Castlebar in Co. Mayo / 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 Protestant Bishop of Derry - They then had an estate known as Turlough Park, which was situated 3 mile north of Castlebar and he was reared in England and sent to Co. Galway for an English purpose with the army - In 1770 he married Jane Connelly who was sister to Thomas Connolly of Castletown who had married the daughter of the English Duke of Leinster - In 1773 as a well - known dueler he returned from France to Ireland to their 2 properties Turlough Park & 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 - 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 Protestant & German Hanoverian - Patrick Randall Mac Donnell a Catholic attorney had been elected the Colonel of the Co. Mayo Volunteers and George Robert Fitz Gerald wanted this position badly himself so he shot the dogs belonging to the citizens of Castlebar for voting for Mac Donnell and decided to kill him also - In 1786 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 Protestant Ascendancy who later became Lord Clare who was the prosecutor, and he was executed at 38 years of age - The Protestant Bishop of Derry, Lord Bristol his uncle, 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 as Mac Thomas & Mac Maurice.