Derrick, John

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | 700+ words | Copyright

Derrick, John (fl. 1578), English engraver whose Image of Ireland (1581) contains the most important and widely known representations of 16th‐century Ireland. Stolid verse is accompanied by twelve vivid woodcuts. Certain drawings, such as the governor's departure from Dublin Castle, can be checked for accuracy against contemporary maps, but others are figments of the author's imagination. The main subjects are the depredations of the ‘wild Irish’ kern and the glorious exploits of Sidney. The book, while excluding from its strictures the civil subjects of the Pale, is heavily laden with anti‐Irish, anti‐Catholic views. Most notably the friars are shown exhorting and absolving the rebellions of the Gaelic lords. Derrick's woodcuts—their message ignored, sublimated, or misunderstood—have become familiar illustrations in Irish history books.

Hiram Morgan

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