This book seeks not only to present accounts of the most significant of the Irish battles and to describe them in relation to the terrain in which they were fought, but to make a general survey of the development of military science, the evolution of weapon types and the military history of Ireland. Among the broad themes which I have endeavoured to treat are the alteration of medieval Irish military organisation following the introduction of the galloglaigh, or galloglas; the effect of the introduction of the use of gunpowder on the Irish wars; the continuance down the centuries of a distinctively Irish type of warfare of the countryside, which was different from formal warfare and which foreshadowed the guerrilla tactics of modern times; and the leadership and technical ability of the outstanding Irish military figures, such as Hugh and Owen Roe O'Neill and Patrick Sarsfield.

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