Ireland History

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, it was in Irish ; when Desmond’s grandson placed the facts of the Great Earl’s death before the Council, it was in Irish ; Kildare’s great library in Maynooth Castle had as many books in Irish as in any other language.

Posted on July 20th, 2008 under Gaelic Feudalism. Tags: decrees, desmond, Futility, Irish dress, Kells, kildare, Maynooth Castle, Navan and Dundalk, ormonde, Trim. Comments: None

The New Earldroms were Kildare, Desmond, Ormonde. It was just when the last of the early Lordships disappeared that there rose into clear prominence three familks which from that time became the conspicuous leaders of the Irish of Norman descent. They were not late arrivals ; their founders had been amongst the earliest settlers, but hitherto they had occupied a secondary position to the Marshalls, De Lacys, De Burghs and others.

Unlike most of these families, their interests lay altogether in Ireland, and they were only remotely concerned in English politics. They were the Fits-Geralds of Leinster, the Fitz-Geralds of Munster, and the Butlers, the respective heads of which were now created Earls of Kildare (1318), of Desmond (1330), and of Ormonde (1328).

The original location of Geraldines and Butlers in the lordship of Leinster, and the development of their influence have been already indicated (page 127). Although the Geraldines had lost their possessions in Connacht, they were powerful elsewhere.

Posted on July 15th, 2008 under The Absorption of the Normans. Tags: butlers, De Burghs, De Lacys, desmond, earldroms, Fits-Geralds of Leinster, Geraldines and Butlers, Irish chiefs, kildare, Marshalls, Norman lords, ormonde, the Fitz-Geralds of Munster. Comments: None