These vicious decrees, like similar earlier ones, fell most heavily on the colonists, and, like those, they were ignored or evaded. They were directed, indeed, against the social and economic life of the country. Irish language, dress and customs prevailed every-where even within the Pale itself. The limits of the Pale were too narrow for its impoverished inhabitants to be able to exist if shut off from trade and intercourse with the country around. When Mac Riocaird Butler wrote in the Saltair of Caiseal, ... Read More