Ruaidhrí Óg Ó Mórdha

Collection: Special Collections, UCC Library, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.

John Derricke compiled The Image of Irelande describing the16th century Irish campaigns of Lord Deputy Henry Sidney during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Image of Irelande opens with a history of Ireland and its conflicts with the English, presenting reasons for English rule and contains 12 woodcut illustrations interspersed with verse narration. The image shows Ruaidhrí Óg Ó Mórdha, an Irish lord in what is now County Laois, wearing a traditional Irish mantle in the forest, with his hunting dog. Ruaidhrí says ‘Ve mihi misero or I pity you’ and the dog says ‘Ve ataque dolor or And the pain will come.’  The book ends with the surrender of Turlough Luineach Ó Neill, king of Tyrone, in 1578.