Before the Kilt: How the Irish and Scots Dressed in the 16th Century

With 22 full-color illustrations and 25 black & white illustrations, all from the 16th century, the purpose of this book is to use 16th century sources to provide in a single volume the most comprehensive and accurate description so far available of 16th century Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic clothing.

Accordingly, this book presents and examines the watercolors, woodcuts, and manuscript illuminations of Lucas de Heere, Albrecht Dürer, the Ashmoleum Museum, Raphael Holinshed, John Derrick, and more. It also presents and examines the reports on Gaelic dress written in the 16th century by Nicolay d'Arfeville, John Lesley, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, John Major, Jean de Beaugué, George Buchanan, Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh, and William Camden.

As a result of this extensive process of compilation and analysis, the author specifically identifies the most accurate 16th century illustrations of Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic clothing. He also presents damning evidence that the most widespread images (and long considered the most important images) of 16th century Irish men and women are, to a large degree, a fraud perpetrated by a single 16th century propagandist - John Derrick.

As an added bonus, the author includes a full chapter devoted to the law, custom, tradition, and worldview of the Irish Gaeil and Scottish Gaeil who wore these clothes.

Physical description: the Deluxe Paperback Edition of 124 pages, 8 X 10 inch format, including 47 illustrations of which 22 are in full color.

Original Title and Date of Publication: How the Irish and Scots Dressed in the 16th Century, October 2010


Author: Gerald A. John Kelly
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 08/01/2011
Pages: 126
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 10.00h x 8.00w x 0.33d
ISBN: 9781466219786

About the Author
Jerry Kelly holds an M.A. in Celtic Studies with distinction from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and a B.S. from Yale University. He is also a former Adjunct Professor of Irish Language and Culture at Fordham University.

His coursework at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David to date has included Celtic linguistics, archaeology of the Western world and the Middle East, Old Irish, Minoan & Mycenaean archaeology, Modern Irish, the Indo-European expansion and its mythology, Celtic mythology, classical civilization including Greek and Roman religion and Homeric epic, Early Irish Historical Tales, historical research methods, the Celtic Arthur, early Celtic Christianity, the medieval Irish church, and the early modern history of England and Celtic Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

He taught Irish on behalf of The Irish Arts Center in New York from 1979 to 1981; plus mythology and Seanchas through the medium of the Irish Language at Scoil Ghaeilge Ghearóid Tóibín / The Gerry Tobin Irish Language School from 1989 to 2007; and Irish and Irish Gaelic culture at Fordham from 2008 to 2010.

He currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Irish Institute of Molloy College, teaches Irish on behalf of Cumann Carad na Gaeilge / The Philo-Celtic Society (www.philo-celtic.com), writes the Seanchas column for the Irish Language magazine AN GAEL, and is a member of the American Conference for Irish Studies and the American Irish Teachers Association.

He is also the author of a number of books and articles in Irish and in English including "The Ancient Celtic Ancestry of the O'Brien Family", "Celts, Germans, Jews and Other Surprises at Roanoke: The Beginning of Multi-Ethnic America", and "An Chopail in Abairtí Aicme".

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