Luke Gernon

Luke Gernon (c.1580 – c.1672) was an Irish judge who held office in seventeenth-century Ireland. He is best remembered today for his manuscript (which seems to have been a private letter) called A Discourse of Ireland. The Discourse was written in 1620, and was first published in 1904.

He had several notable descendants, including his grandson, the poet Nicholas Brady, and Maziere Brady, a long-serving Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the nineteenth century.

Career In view of his later eminence, it is surprising how little is known of Gernon's family background or his early life. He was certainly English by birth and was most likely a native of Hertfordshire, but nothing seems to be known of his parents. He was probably the Lucas Gernon who entered Lincoln's Inn in 1604; afterwards, he is said to have served for a time as a soldier. He arrived in Ireland in about 1619, in which year he was admitted to the King's Inn. In the same year he became second justice of the Provincial Court of the Lord President of Munster, of which he gives some interesting details in his Discourse. Gernon, unlike many Englishmen of his era, did not regard the Irish people as being either savage or uncivilised, but believes that they will benefit from English influences; rather coarsely, Ireland is described as a young woman or "nymph" who needs to be "occupied". "be not afraid – the Irishman is no cannibal to eat you up nor lousy Jack to offend you". This description is based mainly on his visit to Barryscourt Castle, Carrigtwohill, home of the de Barry family.