> I know not when A. Fraser published his book and have never heard of him.

1992 - so he couldn't have known about the document you mention if it just came to light a few years ago.

I didn't know anything about the author at the time I read the book, but it sounds as if he was an interesting man -- a "champion of government efficiency and Gypsies" according to his obituary in the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/15/guardianobituaries
Sorry, there's nothing in the notes I made at the time about the first records of Gypsies in Ireland, and I don't have a copy of the book to check. Maybe someone else here knows more about that.