Archives, in Lancashire, Dublin and London and as far away as New Zealand, provide factual evidence about the life of George Macnemara of Cong, who lived in this County Mayo village for almost forty years as tenant of the Cong Abbey estate of over 7,000 acres, located in both Counties Mayo and Galway.   His landlord was an English Catholic, Henry Tasburgh, resident in London.  The records reveal much about the relationship between these two men and how George, a Catholic middleman and native of County Clare, managed to survive the rigours of the Penal Laws and hold onto the estate for all his life.  He was married three times and had at least eleven children – one great grandchild was an Austrian Count and well known palaeobotanist.  Travel writers and a late nineteenth century local historian provide the folklore still associated with this colourful character of Cong, whom some regarded as a philanthropic highwayman!  This book gives a detailed insight into life in a west of Ireland village and its surrounding countryside in the early eighteenth century and portrays a number of interesting characters.

Brigid Clesham is an archivist and researcher.  She has worked in a number of repositories in Ireland including the National Library where she catalogued the Westport Estate Papers.  She was the archivist associated with the compilation of the landed estates database for Connacht and Munster at the Moore Institute, NUI, Galway.  She lives just outside the village of Cong.