Medieval Ireland was where the violent aftermath of the Reformation, the struggle between Catholic Spain and Protestant England, was played out. By attempting to become a vassal state of Spain, Europe’s superpower and champion of Catholicism, Ireland became England’s Cuba, an offshore island being secretly armed by a dangerous enemy.

Secret Sights II tells the story of Medieval Ireland, a time that begins with written history and ends at the Battle of Kinsale. It was a long era of high-culture, piety and intermittent anarchy. It was a time when Ireland’s Gaelic and Norman-Irish nobility, the millionaires of their day, intermarried in the Cathedrals they endowed, while engaged in ruthless political intrigue and private wars, like the Medici of Renaissance Italy.

The book shows the magnificent abbeys and castles of the Gaelic lords, and explains why some wives of the medieval Irish aristocracy were ruthless while others were benevolent, It tells how Irish chieftains befriended England’s early kings and why, ultimately, they and their way of life were defeated.

ROB VANCE is a photographer, writer and presenter of RTE television’s ‘Secret Sights’ history programme. He is a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries and an associate member of the Irish Psycho-Analytical Association. This is his second book.