By Brian Igoe
By Brian Igoe
As everyone learns at school, or everyone educated in England anyhow, in 1066 the Normans arrived in England and defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. Saxon Harold was out with an arrow in his eye, and Norman Duke William was in as King William I of England. And Normans rapidly took over the country. By 1166 they had gone through three more kings, William II, Henry I, and Steven, not counting a civil war with another claimant Countess Matilda, and now Henry II was on the throne.
Dermot McMurrough, the Once and Future King. In Ireland things were not materially changed since the death of Brian Boru 52 years earlier, save that only slight authority was exercised from time to time by the current High King. There were lots of petty fights and cattle raids, but little more. There were four Kings involved in the McMurrough affair and it all got very complicated. Essentially, King Dermot had been kept in his job as King of Leinster by the late High King, and now that he was gone the others, incensed by Dermot's abduction of one of their wives whom he coveted, all attacked him together and Dermot had to flee. He went to Wales, and thence to Henry II in England - it was 1168 by now - and asked for help in reclaiming his kingdom.
That is the first paragraph of the chapter, which then goes on to look at "Earl of Pembroke", "Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare", "Strongbow", "Welsh longbow", Ireland, King Dermot's daughter Eve, Kingdom of Leinster, Irish Brehon law, Barrow River, Wexford, 1169, Waterford, Viking, 1170, the Suir, Anglo Normans, St Bartholomew's Eve 1170, Cathedral of Waterford, Rory O'Connor, Tiernan O'Rourke, le Gros, Milo de Cogan, Dublin, Hasculf Thorgillsson, "Sigtrygg (Sitric) Silkbeard Olafsson", "Annals of the Four Masters", Giraldus Cambrensis, Henry II, Nicholas Breakspeare, Pope Adrian IV, 'the English Pope', papal Bull 'Laudabiliter', King Dermot of Leinster, Thomas Beckett, The Pale was the area between Dalkey and Dundalk, Earldom of Kildare, Feudal laws, Manorial courts, Anglo Irish, John de Courci, Ulster, Munster, de Cogan, de Braose, Treaty of Windsor, Carickfergus Castle, The FitzGeralds, Maurice FitzGerald, ancient Irish Music, The Annals of Loch C, Aedh Sochlachainn, Vicar of Cong, Henry Shelly 'the best singer of the Irish of Leath Cuinn (the North of Ireland)', Athairne O'Hosey, Irish Druids, Richard I, the 'Lion Heart', King John of Magna Carta fame, Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, Lord of Offaly, Richard de Burgo, Limerick, Tipperary, Justiciar, Connacht, Smoked and salted salmon, Simon de Montfort, Henry III, 'Gallowglasses', Aed O'Connor of Connacht, 1270, New Ross, Edward I, King Robert Bruce, Bannockburn, 1314, Battle of Faughart in Louth, Connacht, Thomond, Westmeath, Richard de Clare of Bunratty, O'Briens, the Famine of 1316, The Black Death, Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk, Louth, Meath and County Dublin, river Nore, Kilkenny Friar John Glyn, Lionel of Antwerp, Earl of Ulster, Statutes of Kilkenny, the Geraldines.
The Book is called 'The Story of Ireland'.
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