Giraldus Cambrensis; Gerald de Barry  Historian, born Manorbeer,
Wales, c.1147; died 1220. He was appointed Bishop of Saint
David's in 1180, but resigned to accompany Prince John to
Ireland, where he remained two years. He visited Rome in a
fruitless effort to secure his reappointment to his old see.
Giraldus was a writer of remarkable brilliancy. A topography and
a history of the conquest, long regarded as authoritative, were
severely criticized by Dr Lynch in his "Cambrensis Eversus,"
1662, who meets his charges against the Irish people, impeaches
his ignorance of their language, unfamiliarity with the country,
disregard of chronology, and credulity in accepting popular
rumors and unauthenticated narratives.  New Catholic Dictionary
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