Shadow Lord Theobald Bourke, Tibbott-ne-Long, 1567-1629 : Son of the Pirate Queen, Grace O'Malley

"It is perhaps providential that the youngest son of Ireland's famous Pirate Queen, Granuaile (Grace O'Malley), was born on the high seas aboard his mother's galley. This event, as well as inheriting her maritime skill, gave rise to his name, Tiboid-ne-Long (Theobald or Tibbott-of-the-Ships). Saved at birth from Barbery Coast pirates, Tibbott Bourke, seems destined to fulfil his birthright and, like his father, become a minor leader in the fragmented and twilight world of Gaelic Ireland. But national and international politics catapults him into prominence in a period of immense change, as the battle-lines between two incompatible protagonists--the antique Gaelic world of his birth and the exploitive, acquisitive world of Elizabethan England--are drawn. Survival becomes the spur. Only one side can win. Only the very few will survive. With a Machiavellian mind that out manoeuvers his opponents with opportunism, cunning and daring, Tibbott sets out to salvage what he can from the wreckage. Enduring imprisonment, torture, famine, dispossession and isolation, earning the suspicion, envy and hatred of both sides, resorting to double-dealing, chicanery, even murder, Tibbott weaves his way through the military and political morass in his all-consuming passion to survive. Shadow Lord is more than just a portrait of Tibbott Bourke, it is also a unique insight into one of the most profound periods of change, incorporating new unpublished manuscript material. Shadow Lord also presents new information on the descendents of Tibbott Bourke and on the legal controversy that surrounds his title, Viscount Mayo, to the present day"--Provided by publisher.