Author Chats

Lordships, Lost Lands, and Principled Stand: Patrick C. Jordan Documents Irish History in First Book

August 27, 2025

The title of Patrick C. Jordan’s first book accurately reflects the text’s inclination to approach history in both broad strokes and fine detail. The Rise, Fall and Aftermath of the Gaelicized Norman–Irish Lordship — The Jordans (MacSiúrtáin) of County Mayo, Ireland recounts centuries of Irish and European history, following the author’s family lineage and describing the social, political, and economic conditions that impacted their fortunes. It is an impressive work of richly annotated historical study.

Jordan, an international energy attorney, spent over a decade researching and drafting his book. It features a broad array of supporting and illustrative documents, including photographs of present-day remains of historical locations, contemporary accounts of people and events, and a table of land ownership records.

The D.C. Bar recently interviewed Jordan about the inspiration behind his book, his research process, and the enduring motto in his family’s history.

How did you set out to write your book?

I didn’t initially have the intention to write a book. I was just dabbling in a bit of family genealogy. I knew that my family had immigrated from Ireland, from County Mayo specifically, which is in the west of Ireland, and I was trying to get some information.

I was trying to figure out whether there was any information on the other side of the Atlantic that would be interesting. And my intention was just that — to put together a few pages to distribute to some family members, but I started finding resources about the Jordans. There was one book, in particular, that was written by a gentleman by the name of John O’Hart, who was a noted 19th-century genealogist and historian in Ireland. Ironically, he was from a place called Crossmolina in County Mayo, where my family is from. O’Hart wrote two books that basically detailed the so-called landed gentry, both Gaelic and Anglo-Irish, who were typically later-arrival Protestants.

In reading those books, one of the early revelations in my research was that the surname Jordan was originally either de Courcy or de Angulo. Let me digress … I learned that there were actually two Jordan clans, or what became known as lordships in Ireland, that had the Jordan last name. One was a derivative of the de Courcies, who were Norman.

The Normans came over from England around 1169 in an invasion by the Norman diaspora that was living in England at the time. So, there were these people called de Courcy, and eventually the descendants of Jordan de Courcy, one of the Norman invaders, jettisoned the surname de Courcy, eventually transitioning from de Exeter Jordan to simply Jordan. Jordan de Courcy had participated in one of the Crusades and, apparently, as a result of this, embraced the given name Jordan.

There was another Jordan clan in County Mayo that was Jordan Duff, or, in the Gaelic, Dubh, which means “dark,” likely referencing their hair color. This particular clan was a derivative of another Norman invader, again coming over [around] 1169 from England to Ireland. They were known as de Angulo, and they, in turn, eventually became Costello, which is a very common Irish name in the west of Ireland. A branch of the Costellos became Jordan.

As I started to learn more about the history of the Jordans in Ireland, it transformed the focus of my research from being a very specific family project into a much larger project having to do with the part of Irish society that arrived in Ireland in the 12th century as Normans, built castles over time, and established feudal estates.

What was your research process like?

Local Irish organizations and people were very encouraging and very helpful. For instance, the Michael Davitt Museum in Strade, County Mayo, which is located practically a stone’s throw away from the Ballylahan Castle, which was constructed around 1240 by the de Exeter Jordan lordship and was this lordship’s principal castle. The museum had good research materials, and I spoke with [its staff] many years ago about my interest in the project. There were several individuals in the museum who provided a lot of support.

A number of landowners also gave me access to sites where ruins or castles were reported to have existed. In a few cases, I found the ruins of castles. In others I was disappointed. Oftentimes, the old stones of the castle ruins would have been repurposed for the 17th- and 18th-century manor houses of the Protestant gentry.

The National Library of Ireland in Dublin was another good resource, especially for primary source information. It was a big challenge because much of the research entailed reading old documents captured on microfiche. Going back a few centuries, not only was the writing difficult to decipher, but the quality of the microfiche made it very tough, though I did extract some very good information.

The local library in County Mayo, and even local residents in the areas where some of the former castles stood, were helpful. People invariably have some family history or some historical sense of the locality. Of course, there were many academics such as Hubert Knox, who wrote an outstanding treatise on the history of County Mayo, and Goddard Henry Orpen, [author of] Ireland Under the Normans. The research and writings of historians from Trinity College in Dublin and the University of Galway were also quite helpful … Then there were local County Mayo historians such as Yvonne McDermott, Mary O’Brien, Tony Donohoe, Bernard O’Hara and, as mentioned, John O’Hart, whose writings, in all cases, were invaluable.

The motto of the de Exeter Jordans is mentioned frequently in your book. Tell me about it.

Percussus resurgo means, in Latin, “when struck down, I shall rise again.” I love it, I think that’s something everybody in life needs to embrace. You’re going to have a stumble in life. You’re going to get knocked off your feet, and you just need to get up and keep going.

The motto was apparently applied to the de Exeter Jordans as a result of the exploits of Jordan de Courcy, whose son became Jordan de Exeter. During the Crusades there was an incident in which Jordan de Courcy was thought to be dead. He was in the middle of some kind of skirmish with the Saracen soldiers in Palestine, and he miraculously survived and was also apparently carrying the banner, as the story goes. How much of it is legend, and how much is true, is anyone’s guess, but the motto stuck.

John O’Hart made a comment that the Jordans were staunchly Catholic, even in a post-Cromwell society in which they were clearly disfavored since they had lost their lands and social status. They tumbled into tenantry, if not peasantry, as a result.

A handful of other Catholic Norman Irish families, and Gaelic ones for that matter, converted to the Protestant faith to preserve their lands and social status. The interesting thing is that, despite the fact that the Jordans clearly lost a lot, percussus resurgo also relates to the mindset of the Jordans and their principled stand rather than taking the easy route of conversion. I don’t know that I could have been so principled, given everything that they lost.

Are you planning a follow-up?

I have another two books in the queue, and any number that I’d like to write now. I have one that I’ve almost finished putting together that is a collection of short stories written by my father, Harry J. Jordan, who was also a D.C. lawyer. He has been an inspiration for me, both in terms of how I try to live my life and professionally.

I read his stories and really liked them, not because he’s my father, but because they are entertaining and insightful, so I’ll be publishing them. I’m thinking that book will come out in the early fall. And I have another history book that is about another part of the family, also on my father’s side, who immigrated from Ireland and settled in the western Pennsylvania bituminous coal fields of Connellsville outside of Pittsburgh. It’s about the men of capital that started the mining operations in western Pennsylvania and the mining labor that supported it.

Coal mining operations were a hugely important cog in the Industrial Revolution approaching the end of the 19th century, and I’m excited about that book because I talk about these Irish immigrants, driven from their homes during the Great Famine, and their journey to the U.S. into these company town coal communities. I’m dedicating that book to my grandmother and great-grandmother. Both of them lived in these tiny coal company towns called patch towns, and my great-grandmother succumbed to Spanish influenza.

Where can readers find your work?

Honestly, I am just getting started in trying to get the word out about the book, so I really appreciate you interviewing me! The book can be purchased through Amazon. I am a bit further along in Ireland, where I have been interviewed by Midwest Radio 96.1 FM and the Western People newspaper. I also have commitments from a number of Irish bookstores following my most recent trip there.