History of Ireland

The history of Ireland begins between 8000 and 7000 BC, when the first humans inhabited Ireland. This was followed by a migration of Celtic-speaking people between 700 and 500 BC and Viking settlers in the ninth century AD. Until the fifteenth century Ireland was a patch-work of competing kingdoms and over-kingdoms. English involvement in Ireland began with the arrival of the Normans in the twelfth century, but England did not have full control until the whole island had been conquered in 1653.

Gaelic Resurgence, Norman Decline 1254-1536

Main article Irish Military Revival 1249-1367

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Anglo-Norman Ireland was deeply shaken by three events of the 14th century.

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The first was the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce of Scotland who, in 1315, rallied many of the Irish lords against the English presence in Ireland. Although Bruce was eventually defeated in Ireland at the battle of Faughart, near Dundalk, his troops caused a great deal of destruction, especially in the densely settled area around Dublin. In this chaotic situation, local Irish lords won back large amounts of land that their families had lost since the conquest and held them after the war was over.

Related Topics:
Edward Bruce - Scotland - 1315 - Battle of Faughart - Dundalk

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The second was the murder of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster, in June 1333. This resulted in his lands being split in three among his relations, with the ones in Connacht swiftly rebelling against the Crown and openly siding with the Irish. This meant that virtually all of Ireland west of the Shannon was lost to the Anglo-Normans. It would be well over two hundred years before the Burkes, as they were now called, were again allied with the Dublin administration.

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The third calamity for the medieval English presence in Ireland was the Black Death, which arrived in Ireland in 1348. Because most of the English and Norman inhabitants of Ireland lived in towns and villages, the plague hit them far harder than it did the native Irish, who lived in more dispersed rural settlements. The plague was a catastrophe for the English inhabitations around the country and after it had passed, Gaelic Irish language and customs came to dominate the country again. The English-controlled area shrunk back to the Pale, a fortified area around Dublin.

Related Topics:
Black Death - Pale

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Additional causes of the Gaelic revival were political and personal grievances against the Anglo-Normans, but especially impatience with procastination and the very real horrors that successive famines had brought. Pushed away from the fertile areas, the Irish were forced to eke out a subsistence living on marginal lands, which left them with no safety net during bad harvest years (such as 1271 and 1277) or in a year of famine (virtually the entire period of 1311-19).

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Outside the Pale, the Norman lords adopted the Irish language and customs, becoming known as the Old English, and in the words of a contemporary English commentator, became "more Irish than the Irish themselves." Over the following centuries they sided with the indigenous Irish in political and military conflicts with England and generally stayed Catholic after the Reformation. The authorities in the Pale grew so worried about the "Gaelicisation" of Ireland that they passed special legislation in a parliament in Kilkenny (known as the Statutes of Kilkenny) banning those of English descent from speaking the Irish language, wearing Irish clothes or inter-marrying with the Irish. Since the government in Dublin had little real authority, however, the Statutes did not have much effect.

Related Topics:
Old English - Kilkenny - Statutes of Kilkenny - Irish language

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Throughout the 15th century, these trends proceeded apace. Central English authority in Ireland all but dissappeared in this period. The monarchy of England was itself in turmoil - being fought over in the Wars of the Roses. As a result, English interest in Ireland diminished further. The (English) Kings of Ireland effectively delegated their power over the Lordship of Ireland to the powerful Fitzgerald Earl of Kildare, who dominated the country by means of military force and alliances with lords and clans around Ireland.

Related Topics:
15th century - Wars of the Roses - Lordship of Ireland - Earl of Kildare

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Around the country, local Gaelic and Gaelicised lords expanded their powers at the expense of the English government in Dublin. See Main article Anglo and Gaelic Ireland 1367-1536 for details of the Irish petty kingdoms in this period.

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