Based on the 2014 conference on the military orders at Glenstal Abbey, this is the first collection to look at both orders in Ireland. It is a welcome update to the field which still largely relies on older works by Herbert Wood and others and fills a real gap in the scholarship for historians of the orders and of medieval Ireland.

Helen Nicholson's article explains the background of both orders and their introduction to Ireland in the twelfth century. In a succinct overview she explores the many roles of the military orders in Ireland, highlighting their administrative function and role in connecting Ireland to the Holy Land. The importance of Kilmainham to Irish and Dublin politics mentioned in her discussion is expanded upon by Gregory O'Malley, whose chapter shows how the Hospitallers continued to focus on Irish matters to the annoyance of the conventual authorities who wanted them to make a greater contribution to the Hospitallers’ efforts in the east.

The dissolution of the Hospitallers and efforts at restoring them – physically under Mary and as a social ‘style’ on the continent – are discussed by Brendan Scott and Declan M. Downey respectively. Scott explores the dissolution, revival, and ultimate collapse of Kilmainham during the religious changes of the sixteenth century. Downey demonstrates the ways in which the Irish in exile tried to maintain themselves as a legal entity by seeking restoration of their titles from the Habsburg court. This, however, had nothing to do with the original purpose of the order but was a way of providing titles for Catholic families and of reinforcing ties between the Spanish and maritime Munstermen so that they would form an effective naval force.

The physical legacy of the military orders in Ireland is explored in the next four chapters. Tadhg O'Keefe and Pat Grogan survey the architectural remains of the orders in Ireland in light of the idea of the frontier. Eamonn Cotter's chapter on two Hospitaller preceptories sets them in a European context by looking at them alongside sites in Britain and Normandy, concluding that Irish sites were similar to their European counterparts but tended to lack hospitals or infirmaries. The Templars are tackled by Kieran O'Conor and Paul Naessens, who describe how one site was transformed into a private house after being given to the Crutched friars, developments reflected in the three phases of building seen in the surviving ruins. The visual legacy of the Hospitallers is expanded on by Paul Caffrey who shows how imagery associated with the order was used in the early modern period to augment portrayals of nobility and masculinity by the Irish elite.

The final chapters of this collection focus largely on economic matters and the ways in which the orders defended their rights. Margaret Murphy discuss the economics of Templar agriculture, primarily based on sheep and corn and in line with what others in Ireland were doing. The involvement of both orders in litigation is analysed by Edward Coleman and Paolo Virtuani in two chapters, the first of which shows how the Templars were embroiled in conflicts with other religious establishments in Ireland and may have used their connections to the English lordship of Ireland to influence things in their favour. Virtuani focuses on disputes of the Hospitallers in the 1250s and 1260s when they clashed with the citizens of Dublin and the archbishop of Dublin over rights but emerged triumphant due to their administrative and legal expertise. Colmán Ó Clabaigh's closing chapter looks at the most poorly-documented aspect of Templar and Hospitaller life in Ireland through one manuscript which shows that the Hospitallers were part of a vibrant literary culture with broad cultural interests reflecting those of Anglo-Irish society.

This collection's strength lies in its chronological breadth and the balance of discussion here between the two orders, the themes chosen reflective of the surviving evidence for both. It brings the military orders in Ireland to the attention of crusade historians who might overlook distant Ireland whilst reminding readers that those same holy knights had little to do with events overseas. The story of the military orders seen in this collection is very much one of involvement in Irish political, social and cultural life, the tenor of which was primarily driven by their dependency on England and the English.