This book falls into two parts: a mediation on aristocracy and its history in Ireland, and a brief account of twenty recognized Chiefs of the Name. Three, The O'Brien, The O'Conor Don and The O'Neill, have legitimate claims to Ireland's High Kingship; all are descendants of territorial kings and sub-kings. Vanishing Kingdoms is organized into four geographical groupings by province with the chiefs arranged alphabetically and their territorial links, histories and personalities explored as clans form widening connections. The stories of these individual families, conveyed through interviews with existing chiefs and fellow historians, give a synoptic view of the past through an unfolding historical documentary. The text is supplemented by a rich iconography of specially commissioned portraits of the present-day chiefs combined with historical paintings and photographs of houses and forebears, maps, engravings and coats-of-arms. This compendium volume will prove a popular introduction to a subject of increasing fascination in a democratized, socially fluid Ireland of the twenty-first century.