Desmond, Earl Gerald

(1335–1398), also known by the Irish Gaelic Gearóid Iarla (Earl Gerald), was the 3rd Earl of Desmond, in southwestern Ireland, under the first creation of that title, and a member of the Hiberno-Norman dynasty of the FitzGerald, or Geraldines. Maurice Fitzgerald, 2nd Earl of Desmond, would have been followed by Gerald’s older brother, Nicholas, but Nicholas was described as “an idiot”, and so was passed over for the earldom. Because of this, some older histories list Gerald as the 4th Earl.