What was the motivation for writing it?
While nosing around in earlier works of Irish and Elizabethan history written by those who both made and witnessed it, and then referring to later accounts by those who had wide access to the original sources and the subsequent secondary works, the author was struck by the breadth of divergence.
The disparity not only held true in the so-called factual accounts, but also for the ascribed motives and justification for much of what transpired. The irreconcilabilities fed an endless loop regurgitating down to the present day, and polarizing all who are caught-up in differences over independence, religion, politics and trade.
In seeking to find the truth, one thing led to another, and the author delved more deeply into the commonly accepted truism that much of history can be taken with a grain of salt as it is frequently written by the conqueror in the blood of the vanquished. And so, one would expect that the counter narrative, written by the vanquished in their own and the conqueror’s blood, is no less suspect.
This caused the author to look for another way to try to make sense of what happened. The first step was to strip away the national stereotypes and myths and get to the basic historical facts upon which there is general agreement. The second step, using what we know of the characters themselves, was to get inside their heads, their virtues and vices and then ‘wind them up’ within the agreed historical record and see where they might lead us.