Fitz Gerald or Mac Garrett or Mac Geralt. Gaelicized as Mac Gearailt who were collectively known as the Gherardini of 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 and 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 one of William the Conqueror's noblemen who was the Castellan of Windsor and the Keeper of the Windsor Forest in the late 11th Century AD, whose second son, Gerald / Geriwald Fitz Walter was appointed the Constable of Pembroke Castle by Henry 1st. Walter Fitz Gerald, who was a son of Gerald Fitz Walter was married to Nesta the daughter of Gruffyd of Tudor Maw the Prince of Wales, and their son, Maurice Fitz Gerald  / Lord Maynooth / Baron Naas was to be with Richard Fitz Gilbert / Strongbow, the son of Gilbert de Clare the Earl of Pembroke. Maurice Fitz Gerald was to become the direct male line ancestor of the Geraldines / Fitz Geralds (Fitz being a misnomer of Fils (son in French) and as the English Earls of Desmond they would dominate early on under the English Monarchy.

     Catherine the second wife of the 12th Earl of Desmond was to be born at Dromana to the north of Villiers Town on the River Blackwater in Co. Waterford in the - east of the Munster Province, and she was to die 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 Province.

     In 1333 AD the Earl of Desmond assisted Edward III the English King 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 Fitz 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 mysteriously disappeared and was to be sighted as a ghost at Loch Gur with his knights galloping around the surface. James Fitz Gerald the 6th Earl of Desmond restored it in the 15th Century AD.

     Their Killough Castle / Black Castle on the southern end of Knockadoon is now a ruin, but was previously also a Desmond stronghold. In the 16th Century during the Munster Province Rebellion against the English religious and ethnic oppression it was held by the Sugan / Straw Earl under John Fitz Thomas Fitz Gerald. 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 ransacked often under the Tudors, and Oliver Cromwell was also to destroy the fortifications there. Because Edmond Fitz Gerald 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 aristocratic warrior Families and this allowed him to maintain control over the Irish Septs 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 until it got too costly, and eventually imprisoned him in the Tower of London. Later he also executed his son, Silken Thomas Fitz Gerald along with his 5 Fitz Gerald 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 the English families of 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 Fitz Gerald 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 flamboyant 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  Estates, Turlough Park and Rockingham, which was near the Estates of 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, George Fitz Gerald 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 then 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 English Lord Chief Baron in Ireland 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 where a branch of the Fitz Geralds as mentioned previously.) The Fitz Geralds also Gaelicized their name as Mac Thomas and Mac Maurice.

Geraldyn -

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