The problems set by the Norman conquest of Ireland which began under Henry II cannot be properly appreciated if they are viewed in isolation. Similar problems had been set by the Norman conquest of England only a hundred years earlier; similar problems existed in Wales. In England, however, the conquest had been both rapid and complete, and problems which were to last throughout the middle ages in Ireland were solved in England by the merging of the two peoples in a relatively short time. Moreover, in England no such clash of laws as was to come about in Ireland had followed the conquest: the Anglo-Saxons had possessed a well-developed system of local administration which was taken over with little or no modification by the Norman kings.

The Irish record commission of 1810-30 is of interest as being the first determined effort on the part of government to deal in a thorough manner with the problem of the Irish public records, giving due consideration to the requirements of historical scholars as well as of lawyers and litigants. Attention had previously been directed on several occasions to the deterioration of the records owing to the lack of proper storage, and to the difficulty of Consulting them owing to the almost entire absence of guides and indexes, and efforts had been made by various individuals to remedy this State of affairs, but the interest of government had been spasmodic, and the recommendations of the several committees of inquiry appointed during the eighteenth Century had remained unimplemented.

It may perhaps be useful for me to express at the outset my belief that the documents which explain the actions of the eighth earl of Kildare, who served either as justiciar or as deputy lieutenant of Ireland during the years 1477–92 and 1496–1513, still await a scientific and objective examination : the interpretation of them has so far been too much the result of an attitude of parti pris, and it has made the earl&s relations with the English government unintelligible. This note is, however, intended to do no more than resolve some perplexities that have gathered round his attainder in the Irish parliament in 1495 at tne instigation of Sir Edward Poynings, the then deputy.