The Whitneys of Leinster: An Anglo-Irish Family by Lawrence Tritle

Who are the Irish? Don’t they have names like O’Sullivan, O’Leary, and O’Keefe, though not Obama! These are the Gaelic Irish, too often the victims of invaders from the Danes to the Normans. But there were other Irish, the Anglo-Irish with names like Wellesley, Allen, and Whitney. These are families known from medieval times as the Normans, who began settling in Ireland in the eleventh century after William the Conqueror’s victory over the unlucky Harold at Hastings.

Later known as the “Ascendancy,” or “Lace Curtain Irish,” the Anglo-Irish, especially those of the elites, whether gentry or aristocracy, played an important role in the later emergence of Ireland. This they did as soldiers and clergy (though of the Church of Ireland!), and later as political leaders and writers leading Irish independence. Of course, this does not deny the role of O’Sullivans and Murphys and others, but only to note the assimilation of the Norman settlers into the Irish, that is Gaelic way of life.

This is the subject of The Whitneys of Leinster. An Anglo-Irish Family, at once a family story but also one of social and cultural relevance to the nature of historical assimilation.

Publisher: Walton Well Press
Publication Date: March 2025
ISBN: 978-1-964295-10-7
Length: 136 pages
Format: Hardback

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About the Author

Larry (Lawrence) Tritle, at Whitney Ballyine House, 1984

LAWRENCE TRITLE PhD, emeritus Daum Professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, is author and editor of 14 books, including From Melos to My Lai: War and Survival (2000), A New History of the Peloponnesian War (2010), The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World (2013, edited with Brian Campbell), and the forthcoming Beasts of War from Walton Well Press.