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History of Medieval Ireland

The Normans for now controlled Ireland. For two generations land had passed out of Gaelic hands. Norman lawyers drew up deeds of land ownership while Norman builders built castles on this land. The Gaels still owned scattered pockets of land, mainly in the west of Ireland. The largest of these ‘pockets’ was in the west of Ulster (now Donegal and Tyrone) these were owned by the O’Donnells and the O’Neills (formerly Ui Neills).

The area around Dublin known as the Pale was directly governed by the Crown and the Norman feudal magnates, who were outwardly loyal to the Crown but they resented anyone encroaching on their territories.

The magnates controlled the justice system and the collection of taxes.
By the start of the 14th century the Gaelic forces started to fight back. They had two major advantages – they outnumbered the colonists and they had the law of succession, which meant a king could be succeeded by any of his male relatives as long as they shared a great-grandfather.

The Gaels had grown in military strength, first learning from the Norsemen and then from the Normans themselves. Mercenaries were hired from Scotland to help. All of Ulster except Carrickfergus and all of Connacht except Galway had been reclaimed by thre middle of the 14th Century.

Of the Norman magnates only the Fitzgeralds of Kildare and Desmond and the Butlers of Ormond stood firm. Many of these had married Gaels and had adopted the Irish language and culture as their own. In 1366 the statutes of Kilkenny was passed forbidding Anglo-Normans to speak Gaelic, wear Gaelic clothing and to adopt Irish traditions. This bill was largely ignored.

A Gaelic chieftain named Art MacMurrough Kavanagh had for years been attacking the borders of the Pale prompting Richard II to come to Ireland twice and do battle, twice he was defeated highlighting the Crowns diminishing hold on Ireland. The Norman magnates seeing this failure started to look after themselves. The most powerful of these families were the Fitzgeralds of Kildare and they dominated Ireland for another two generations.

 

Castles in Ireland
As invasions on Ireland increased so did the need for fornications. Today Ireland still holds many of these fortifications including castles that…