Luke Gernon

He lived for many years in Limerick, a city which, like other residents and travellers of the time, he praised for its wealth and beauty, and he remained there until the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

[1] On this occasion the pension was paid, no doubt because the petition was supported by Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery and by James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, who seems to have been a close friend of Mrs. Gernon.

Although Archbishop Ussher praised Mrs Gernon highly, calling her "a lady of quality", little else seems to be known of her, apart from the fact that she had a family connection with Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, which was useful to her husband.

The manuscript called A Discourse of Ireland, first published in 1904, seems to have originally been a long letter which Gernon wrote to an unnamed friend in England.

[3] Gernon, unlike many Englishmen of his era,[4] did not regard the Irish people as being either savage or uncivilised, but believes that they will benefit from English influences; rather coarsely, Ireland is described as a young woman or "nymph" who needs to be "occupied".

He praises St. Mary's Cathedral: "not large but very lightsome, and by the providence of the Bishop (Bernard Adams) fairly beautified within, and as gloriously furnished with singing and organs".

King John's Castle was the seat of the Provincial Court of Munster, of which Gernon was a member (this helps date the document to 1620), and of which he gives a brief portrait.

He defends the Irish people against the charge of being savages:[5] "be not afraid – the Irishman is no cannibal to eat you up nor lousy Jack to offend you".

His use of the terms Bean Tí to describe the "woman of the house" and "deoch ar doras" for "drink at the door" or "the parting glass" shows that he had picked up some Gaelic phrases.