Landfall

Landfall is a novel of the Elizabethan adventurers who searched for the North West Passage, raided the Spanish treasure ships and dismembered Ireland in the 16th Century.

It describes the lust for gold that enticed many to invest in a fools’ errand to find a route to the fabled Indies. It tells how The Pope sent a force of Spanish and Italian mercenaries to land on a windswept promontory in South West Ireland, in support of rebels attempting to resist the advance of English power.

The expedition ended in a river of blood seeping from the execution fields, blood that stained the reputations of those who took part and those who profited from it. The subsequent Plantation of Munster saw ethnic cleansing and land confiscation on a scale that ensured centuries of resentment and rebellion, fracturing the old Gaelic way of life.