The
Irish History
And
The Fightiing Irish
And
The Fightiing Irish
An overall picture
conquest of Ireland had been going on for four centuries. The rock against which every attempt to
complete it had broken was the immemorial laws of Ireland, the Brehon Laws. These bound Irishmen within the four seas to one social and legal rule. All attempts to plant the feudal system in Ireland by England went down before them.
Their land system was the chief evil in the eyes of the invaders. The Clan owned the land as well as the Chief. He had a life interest in the Chief's portion; but he could not sell the clan-lands or eject free owners. This was a hindrance to confiscation. Now, along with everything else, the Irish laws were declared barbarous. During the four centuries, the ambulatory Parliament of the Pale, passed laws against it. These laws reached just as far as English swords could carry them. The Parliament had now to discuss, but to pass, the commands of Her Highness, Queen Elizabeth I. They were to be carried out by all methods. Ireland was to be brought completely under her authority, each Chief's territory admitting English law; and the Protestant religion was to be firmly established. These two cardinal commands each Lord Deputy was to enforce upon Ireland. The time had arrived when the two civilisations stood at last face to face. The one represented by feudalism - feudalism unshackling itself - and the other represented by the by the Brehon Laws. The first had long denounced the other as barbarous. Irish dress, Irish customs, were the dress and customs of savages.
Their land system was the chief evil in the eyes of the invaders. The Clan owned the land as well as the Chief. He had a life interest in the Chief's portion; but he could not sell the clan-lands or eject free owners. This was a hindrance to confiscation. Now, along with everything else, the Irish laws were declared barbarous. During the four centuries, the ambulatory Parliament of the Pale, passed laws against it. These laws reached just as far as English swords could carry them. The Parliament had now to discuss, but to pass, the commands of Her Highness, Queen Elizabeth I. They were to be carried out by all methods. Ireland was to be brought completely under her authority, each Chief's territory admitting English law; and the Protestant religion was to be firmly established. These two cardinal commands each Lord Deputy was to enforce upon Ireland. The time had arrived when the two civilisations stood at last face to face. The one represented by feudalism - feudalism unshackling itself - and the other represented by the by the Brehon Laws. The first had long denounced the other as barbarous. Irish dress, Irish customs, were the dress and customs of savages.
Interestingly in the first century of the Invasion the vehement Norman-Welsh Archdeacon Giraldus Cambrensis, exclaims " Verily a wild and inhospitable race ! Yet nature fails not to rear and mould them through infancy and childhood, until in the fulness of time she leads each man's estate conspicuous for a tall and handsome form, regular features, and a fresh complexion. But though adorned to the full with such natural gifts as these, still the barbarous fashion of their garments and their ignorance, reveal the utter savage. They apparel themselves in small closely fitting hoods extending over the shoulders and down to the elbow, generally made of parti-colour scraps sewn together. Under this instead of a coat they wear a gown. Woolen trews complete that attire, being breeches and hose in one, usually dyed some tint. The " barbarians " honoured learning. The Leinster prince who invited the Normans to Ireland could write, and not only write but quote Ovid. Most of the Norman chivalry had to employ clerics to read and write their letters. We read of banquets and tournaments in other countries where young knights showed their prowess in the saddle, their skill with the lance; but we do not read of banquets and tournaments given to learned men where the contest was not steel against steel, but epic against epic, song against song, harp against harp - such as those arranged by Liam O' Kelly and the Lady Mairgret of Offaly.
England's wish, often expressed in the four hundred years, was to civilise Ireland. If that were impossible, then extermination. The other objective, besides the Irish laws, was now the religion of the people. The Reformation had rolled back from the shores of Ireland. To the devout soul of the race it was blasphemy to call Henry VIII, or Elizabeth I, the Head of the Church. Strong measures were now used. Abbeys were suppressed and destroyed; churches seized: Protestant ministers supplanted the priests. But no real headway was made. The Irish-Norman nobles, the Desmonds and others, held to the Catholic Faith; the clans and their Chiefs did the same. Fiercer measures followed. The Dublin Parliament enacted that the lives of Priests were forfeited. They were to be hanged, cut down when hald dead, disembowlled and burnt, and their heads impaled in some public place. Anyone caught sheltering a priest was to be hanged, and his lands confiscated. The Act only ran where England's
arm reached.
arm reached.
Elizabeth I, 17th September 1533-24th March 1603
Queen of England and Ireland from 17th November 1558
until her death in 1603.
Queen of England and Ireland from 17th November 1558
until her death in 1603.
In free Tirconnel, in free Tyrone, in the Desmond country, in the O' Rourke's of Breffiny, in hundreds of places in Ireland it had no effect. Priests ministered to their flocks openly; learned monks wrote in their monasteries. But here and there the hands reached, struck and captured. It captured the Archbishop of Cashel, and when finding him inflexible tortured him, and put him to death. Other priests were seized and tortured and hanged.
The strongest Norman House in Irish history was the Geraldines. They must be suppressed. The Ormonds were Castle men and guardians of English authority. The Black Earl of Ormond seized Gerald, Earl of Desmond and sent him to London, and Elizabeth sent him to the Tower. A little later his brother was siezed and also sent to the Tower . Their cousin, James Fitzmaurice, drew his sword to protest against the siezures. " Spirited youths " joined him and held the Desmond country. They won victories; they routed a queen's army. Then Elizabeth made peace with Fitzmaurice. And she then directed a plot for the treacherous murder of himself, his brothers and cousins, which, by discovering in time, he escaped. After a time the new Earl had to fly to Spain for safety and succour. He visited Rome too, got Italian mercenaries, fourscore Spaniards, a promise of more. and returned to Ireland, where he vanished out of life in a skirmish. Spain remembered he promise. Eight hundred Spaniards landed on the coast of Kerry. They fortified themselves at Dun an Oir, at Smerick, County kerry.The Lord Deputy Gray, hastened to attack them, and invested the rock by sea and land. But no breech was made; the Golden fort was impregnable; winter was approaching. Gray sent in a flag of truce and offered honourable terms if the Spaniards would surrender. The Spanish commander accepted the terms, and his men laid down their arms. Then Gray sent in his soldiers and massacred seven hundred men. The massacre, note well, was directed by Sir Walter Raleigh and an officer named Wingfield.
The strongest Norman House in Irish history was the Geraldines. They must be suppressed. The Ormonds were Castle men and guardians of English authority. The Black Earl of Ormond seized Gerald, Earl of Desmond and sent him to London, and Elizabeth sent him to the Tower. A little later his brother was siezed and also sent to the Tower . Their cousin, James Fitzmaurice, drew his sword to protest against the siezures. " Spirited youths " joined him and held the Desmond country. They won victories; they routed a queen's army. Then Elizabeth made peace with Fitzmaurice. And she then directed a plot for the treacherous murder of himself, his brothers and cousins, which, by discovering in time, he escaped. After a time the new Earl had to fly to Spain for safety and succour. He visited Rome too, got Italian mercenaries, fourscore Spaniards, a promise of more. and returned to Ireland, where he vanished out of life in a skirmish. Spain remembered he promise. Eight hundred Spaniards landed on the coast of Kerry. They fortified themselves at Dun an Oir, at Smerick, County kerry.The Lord Deputy Gray, hastened to attack them, and invested the rock by sea and land. But no breech was made; the Golden fort was impregnable; winter was approaching. Gray sent in a flag of truce and offered honourable terms if the Spaniards would surrender. The Spanish commander accepted the terms, and his men laid down their arms. Then Gray sent in his soldiers and massacred seven hundred men. The massacre, note well, was directed by Sir Walter Raleigh and an officer named Wingfield.
Above left, scene of the massacre, the fort at Dun an Oir and above right, a memorial to the 700 Italian/Spanish
soldiers who attempted to hold out in the fort. The incription reads " I gcuimhne dhun an oir, samhain 1580 "
In memory of Dun an Oir November 1580. The memorial stone was laid in 1980 to make the tragic event.
soldiers who attempted to hold out in the fort. The incription reads " I gcuimhne dhun an oir, samhain 1580 "
In memory of Dun an Oir November 1580. The memorial stone was laid in 1980 to make the tragic event.
The Earl and his kinsmen, fighting now for their religion and their homes, joined hands with the MacCarthys, and O' Sullivans and other Munster Chiefs. Carew a Devonshire Knight, claimed Desmon territory and brought an army to seize it and pacify the province.
