Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Baron Offaly

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

FitzGerald, Maurice, 3rd Baron Offaly, succeeded his father in 1257. Terrible feuds raged in his time between the Geraldines and De Burghs. In 1272 he was made Lord-Justice. He more than once invaded Thomond, in 1277 taking prisoner and executing O'Brien Roe, prince of that district; on his return, with part of his forces, he was surrounded in a pass of the Slieve Bloom mountains, and his men were reduced to eat horse flesh, and ultimately compelled to give hostages, and grant to the Irish the Castle of Roscommon. A poem celebrating the efforts made to defend Ross against rival factions, by walling it in 1265, is given by Mr. Croker in his Popular Songs of Ireland. The Baron of Offaly died at Ross in 1277.

Sources

202. Kildare, The Earls of, and their Ancestors: from 1057 to 1773, with Supplement: Marquis of Kildare. 2 vols. Dublin, 1858-'62.

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