Great Gores of today
Sir: I was intrigued to read that Mr Gore Vidal and his blood cousin Mr Albert Gore Jr might be my kinsmen (Letters, 18 March). If it is of any help, I would like to put the record straight on the origins of the Irish Gores.
They first came into prominence in Eng- land in the 16th century, one becoming Lord Mayor of London and another a sol- dier of fortune in Ireland: the latter escort- ed the last two Irish chieftains (Rory O'Donnell and Sir Donough O'Connor) to submit to Queen Elizabeth I, delivering them safely. to Athlone. In recognition he was granted lands by the Queen and put down roots in Co. Donegal, being elected MP for Ballyshannon. You cannot get more Anglo-Irish than that, and there is nothing Scots (or Scotch) Irish about it (or us). The Gores proliferated throughout north-west Ireland: I believe that in the 1750s the Irish parliament included no fewer than nine Gore MPs, almost certainly all related. Perhaps vainly, I take these and their descendants to be Mr Vidal's 'silver fork' Gores. My 1930 copy of Burke's Peer- age lists dozens of collaterals (under Arran, Harlech, Temple of Stowe etc) and at least one may have gone to America (by way of Australia), having married the daughter of De Witt Clinton (sic) Barnes of New York.
I do not claim to have saved Mr Vidal from his alternative ancestry of yeoper- sonages in Nether Wallop, but I hope so.
Josslyn Gore-Booth
Lissadell, Co. Sligo, Ireland
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