John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare
During the last decades of the eighteenth century, the Ascendancy in Ireland, writes William D. Griffin, was dominated by Lord Clare, a figure both reviled and admired.
No Irishman has ever exercised a greater authority over the affairs and fortunes of his native country than Lord Clare, or exerted a more enduring influence upon her history.
“Ireland became divided,” said Sir Jonah Barrington, “between the friends of his patronage, the slaves of his power, and the enemies of his tyranny.”
His nominal superior, the Lord Lieutenant Buckingham, admitted that “...his intrepidity, his influence and weight, have in fact placed him at the head of the country. We all fear him...”
Yet his memory has faded with the generation which knew him, till scarcely a trace remains of a once commanding personality.
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