Irish History
And
The Fighting Irish

( Norman and Gael )

Norman Kings used the Church for all purposes of statecraft, its higher officers were checks and

spies upon popular movements while its ablest bishops, neglecting their spiritual offices, were wholly absorbed in temporal administration. The episcopate was thoroughly secularised and the character of the bishops became very bad. The pious chroniclers in England have left us lurid pictures of the moral degradation of their greater Churchmen of these ages. Their passage to Ireland brought no access of sanctity. They acted as viceroys for the King of England. The Irish Church was treated with great cruelty and the direst oppression. Its bishops were driven from their sees, the canons from their cathedrals, the priests from their parishes. A Gaelic monk could not be harboured in a monastery, or an Irish nun in a convent, in any district where their writ ran. From the pulpits they thundered: " It is no offence against God to kill any Irish human being. " They displayed real ability and amazing zeal in leading their troops in the field and in building mighty castles at all strategical points throughout the land. The sword of Mars, God of War, was their sceptre, not the Cross of the Prince of Peace. They extended the long arm of excommunication against the Irish race, rarely did they uplift the hand of benediction. In their complaint to Pope John XXII, Donald O'Neill, King of Ulster, and the other princes of the Gael ( 1318 ) declared:

" As it very constantly happens, whenever an Englishman, by perfidy or craft, kills an Irishman, however noble, or however innocent, be he clergyman or layman . . .nay, even if an Irish prelate were to be slain, there is no penalty or correction enforced against the the person who may be guilty of such wicked murder, but rather the more eminent the person killed, and the higher the rank which he holds among his own people, so much the more is the murderer honoured and rewarded by the English, and not merely by the people at large, but also by the religious and bishops, of the English race, and above all by those on whom devolves officially the duty of inflicting on such malefactors a just reward and equitable correction for their evil deeds. "

Henry of London was typical of his race and class. At once King John's Viceroy of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin, he spent more time hunting the red deer than in seeking out lost souls. He had a passion for other people's money. He flayed the humbler English, as well as the Irish under his jurisdiction. To build the nortorious Dublin Castle, he pulled down several churches. By wiping out the Gaelic See of Glendalough, in Wicklow, hallowed by the sactitiy, and famed for the Greek, Latin and Irish learning, of St. Kevin and his successors, he erected St Patrick's Church into a cathedral.

Part of historic Dublin Castle.

He gave the people their first experience of foreign landlordism in Irish history and received the title of ' Scorch-Villain ' or ' Burn-Bill in return. On being installed Archbishop he summoned his tenant farmers to arrange their rents, telling them to bring their title deeds with them. " Mistrusting nothing, " they placed their parchments in his hands, which before their faces, he cast into the fire. Before they recovered from the shock and amazement their deeds were turned into ashes. It was then the turn of the men of Glenalough to watch their deeds blaze and burn:
" Thou, an Archbishop ! Nay, thou art a Burn-Bill, a Scorch Villain. " Another drew his sword and cried: " As good for me to kill him as to be killed, for when mu title deeds are burned and my living taken away, i am killed. " The prelate, thoroughly frightened, escaped by the back door, but his officials and bailiffs were well beaten, and some of them left for dead. The outraged tenants even threatened to burn the palace, and would have done so if their just wrath had not been apeased by " fair promise that all should be to their content. "

The process of reducing Ireland by incastellation, or castle building, was persued with restless enthusiasm; and so successful was it that in less than 70 years, three-fourths of the country was under Anglo-Norman sway. The contemporary Gaelic historian lamented that the Irish, who wore no armour, were no match for their foes " in one mass of iron " The Normans were well supplied with the most efficient and the most deadly war weapons of the Europe of that day, and were much better organised than the Irish. Yet the remarkable fact remains that the Gaels were not driven back upon any one part of the kingdom, but remained scattered, yet unconquered, among the foreigners. The Normans in great strength occupied the present Counties of Antrim and Down in Ulster; in Leinster, Louth, Meath, Dublin and Kildare, with the greater part of Westmeath, were densely held by Normans, and by their allies, Flemings, Welsh and Saxons. They had a firm hold of Limerick and the adjoining districts; their stone fortresses stretched to the very mouth of the Shannon.

Norman presence: King John's Castle on the banks of the River Boyne, and in my fathers home town of Trim. We used to play in the grounds of the castle as kids, and my father would tell me, how when he was young, he and his brothers would climb the old fragile stairway and stand on the top of the highest tower . The castle is now beautifully restored and fanstic views can be obtained from the same towers.

In Connaught the rule of De Burgo extended from Galway northward and eastward over the western plain and communicated through Athlone with their allies in Leinster. On the other hand the remainder of Ulster and the adjoining districts were strongly maintained by the O' Neills, O' Donnells, O' Farrells, O' Reillys, and O' Rourkes.
In the Central Plain of Leinster, the O' Conors of Offaly, the O' Mores of Leix, and the O' Carrols of Ely, sat tight on their ancestral lands, in spite of the foreigners efforts to dislodge them. In the mountainous parts of Wicklow, along the uplands of Carlow and Kilkenny, the Gaels kept undisputed rule. In Munster, MacCarthy More reigned in Muskerry and preserved the title of King of Desmond; Thomond, in great part, retained the royal sway of the
O' Briens. Along the western coast, beyond Lough Corrib, the fierce O' Flaherty's continued to live free men.