Binding: Hardback
Date Published: 30 Apr 2006
The MaNamaras, (who spell their name in various ways), are a junior branch of the Irish Clann Cuilein, descendants of a king of Munster, who played an important role in their native County Clare's history during the middle ages.
Among their most famous family members were Maccon the Great, one of the victors at the Battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318 and two who bore the name Sioda - one the builder of Bunratty Castle around 1450 and the other who got a raw deal when he submitted to Kind Henry VIII in 1543. During the following centuries, many MacNamaras left Ireland to earn fame as soldiers and naval men in France, or as gentlemen and politicians in Britain.
One of the latter was N. C. MacNamara of London, whose 'Story of an Irish Sept' was republished seven years ago by Martin Breen, who has now placed us further is his debt with the re-issue of this rare but cognate pedigree and extended family history of John MacNamara of London and Wales. Its author, R.W. Twigge, a frequent correspondent of the well-known Clare antiquity, George U. MacNamara, was an Englishman who clearly empathised with the tragic treatment of Ireland down the years and who almost finished writing a history of the whole Clann Cuilein. The quality of this volume shows what a pity it is that he never succeed in completing it to the point of publication.