Above : Richard “Red Earl” De Burgh Logo

De Courcey in ” Ulster.”—The extension of Norman power to the North was the result of pure brigandage, for there is no evidence that John De Courcey had even the excuse of a royal grant for his adventure. With a small body of picked men he marched beyond Dundalk, and penetrated the gap between the Mourne Mountains and Lough Neagh into the ancient retreat of the Clanna Rury (1177). Suddenly appearing before Downpatrick, he seized it despite the protests of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Vivian, who was then in the town, and defeated an army under Mac Dunlevy, the chief of Dal Araidhe. Firmly establishing himself in the territory of Lecale on the shores of Dundrum Bay and Strangford Lough, and in the peninsula of the Ards, De Courcey was eventually given the title of Earl of ” Ulster ” (1181). The name was borrowed—as were most of the Norman names for Irish territories —from the Norsemen of the maritime towns. ” Ulster ” represented then, and for centuries afterwards, only the narrow belt of north-eastern coast which hitherto we have known as the Kingdom of ” Ulaidh.” and only a part of this—Lecale and the Ards—had been occupied. But in later times it became the policy and interest of the English Crown to extend the name of this little maritime district over all the country which lay behind it.