Between 1630 and 1680 the Talbot family of Malahide, presided over by John Talbot, achieved a remarkable feat: they survived. Despite all the problems of rebellion, civil war, and land confiscation this small north county Dublin family, Catholic in their religion and old English in their political allegiance, managed to retain the bulk of their estates. In addition they also developed these lands, which were centered on the village of Malahide. This is the first detailed study of how a Catholic pale family both managed their lands in a time of crisis and succeeded in transcending the crises of mid seventeenth-century Ireland.