three years, and was buried in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda. 339
Dermody, Thomas, a poet, was born in Ennis, 17th January 1775. Although his memoirs have been written at considerable length, and his poems were in his time much esteemed, the former contain little of real interest, and the latter are now quite forgotten. Endowed with fine natural abilities, he was befriended by the amiable Countess of Moira, and by other persons of refinement and position, but nothing could wean him from dissolute and irregular habits, and he died in poverty, alone, in a wretched hovel near Sydenham, England, 15th July 1802, aged 27. His poems were published in 1807 under the title of the Harp of Erin. 99
Derrick, Samuel, a writer, the friend of Johnson and Boswell, occasionally referred to in Boswell's Johnson, was born in Dublin in 1724. Abandoning the linen-drapery business, he went to London in 1751, made an unsuccessful appearance upon the stage as an actor, and wrote some poetical pieces of a secondary character. Johnson, when asked whether Derrick or Smart was the better poet, replied: "Sir, it is not easy to settle the point of precedency between a louse and a flea." His flighty, careless way of living involved him in repeated monetary embarrassments; but when Beau Nash died, he had the good fortune to be chosen to succeed him as Master of the Ceremonies at Bath. The best known of his works (of which works a list will be found in Allibone) are his Letters, written from Liverpool to Chester, published in 1767. A collection of his jests appeared the year he died, 1769. 16 39 46
De St. Paul, John, Archbishop of Dublin in 1349. In his time the Pope ordained that the Archbishop of Armagh should be styled "Primate of all Ireland," the Archbishop of Dublin, "Primate of Ireland." De St. Paul was a zealous advocate of the English interest; he called a synod for the better regulation of the affairs of the Church. In 1360 he was appointed by the King one of three commissioners to search for and manage mines of gold and silver in Ireland. In 1361 he was instrumental in procuring an amnesty for such of the Anglo-Irish chieftains as had been in opposition to Government. He enlarged and beautified Christ Church, and built the choir at his own expense; and when he died, 9th September, he was buried under the high altar, 12 196 339
Desmonds, The, are properly FitzGeralds; but occupying for centuries the district of "Deasmhumhain" (pronounced Desmond), or "south Munster," they practically lost their original patronymic, (1) Thomas FitzGerald, Lord of O'Connelloe, the son of Maurice FitzGerald, one of the Anglo-Norman invaders of Ireland, and a grandson of Nesta [See Nesta], was brother of Gerald FitzGerald, ancestor of the Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster; he died in 1213. (2) John, son of preceding. Lord of O'Connelloe, and of Decies, Desmond, and Dungarvan, was killed at the battle of Callan, in Kerry, in 1261, by his son-in-law, MacCarthy Mor, and was buried in the north part of the monastery of Tralee, of which he was the founder. He was the ancestor of Clan Gibbon, the Knights of Glin, the Knights of Kerry, FitzGeralds of Clane, Seneschals of Imokelly. (3) Maurice, son of preceding, was slain with his father, in 1261, at the battle of Callan. (4) Thomas, son of preceding, was called "Thomas an-Apa," or "Thomas Simiacus," from an incident which is thus related in the Desmond Pedigree: " This Thomas, being in his swadling cloaths accidentally left alone in his cradle, was by an ape carryed up to the battlements of the monastery of Traly, where the little beast, to the admiration of many spectators, dandled him to and free, whilst everyone ran with theire beds and caddows, thinking to catch the child when it should fall from the ape. But Divine Providence prevented that danger; for the ape miraculously bore away the infant, and left him in the cradle as he found him, by which accident this Thomas was ever after nicknamed from the ape." [A similar anecdote is related of the 1st Earl of Kildare, whose family adopted as their crest two monkeys "environed and chained."] In 1295 he acted as Lord-Justice, and dying next year, was buried in the Dominican Friary, Youghal, which he had completed in 1268. The war cry of the Desmonds was "Shanet-a-boo!" "Shanid [castle] to victory!" 52 147 147*
Desmond, Maurice, 1st Earl, son of preceding, called " Maurice the Great," appears to have taken the rightful place of his elder brother, who died young. He was Lord-Justice of Ireland, had livery of Decies and Desmond in 1312, of Kerry in 1315, and was created Earl of Desmond, 22nd August 1329. He married at Greencastle, 16th August 1312, Margaret, fifth daughter of Richard de Burgh (the Red Earl of Ulster), who died 1331; and secondly Aveline, or Ellinor, daughter of Nicholas FitzMaurice, 3rd Lord of Kerry and Lixnaw. He took an active part in the war against Bruce in Scotland. In contest
