JOHN MAC GILLA MO-CHOLMOC

From Ireland's Story : a short history of Ireland for schools, reading circles and general readers, Charles Johnston, Carita Spencer, Houghton Mufflin & Co., Boston, 1905, page 143.

Diarmuid’s son John was now lord of Rathdown. In 1208, John was charged “ two otter skins for the rent of Radon (Rathdown) for that year ; five otter skins for the two years and a half preceding ; and one hundred and twenty two otter skins for the arrears of this rent for many years then past, making a total of one hundred and sixty nine otterskins.”

John married Claricia, daughter of Gilbert Fitzgryffin of Ballygryffin in Fingal. Gilbert was lord of Knocktopher in Kilkenny and related to the powerful Fitzgerald family.

John was styled by Sir William Betham. The clos roll 13 of Henry III, preserved in the Tower of London, shows that Betham was one of the Irish Magnates summoned in 1227, for the first time, to render service out of Ireland to the King of England, by reason of their tenures.

Smal, Chris (1993) Ancient Rathdown and St. Crispin’s Cell, A uniquely historic landscape. Friends of Historic Rathdown, Greystones.