Features

For many separatists, not only had Ireland lost its independence with Strongbow’s arrival but the other evils of foreign rule could also be traced to that era. By Brian Hanley Strongbow has cast a long shadow over Irish history. When Irish republicans demanded independence a century ago they believed that they were undoing a process … Read more

Two competing visions of Ireland are played out in their works, but each, in his own way, transformed the study of medieval Ireland. By Ruairí Cullen The dawn of ‘scientific’ history writing in the nineteenth century produced little original work on the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. Historians had not been kind to Strongbow and his companions, … Read more

It was not a foregone conclusion in 1169 that Ireland would become ‘England’s first colony’. By Colin Veach Although the invasion of Ireland in 1169 was broadly ‘English’ in its context and character, the political system presided over by its ultimate beneficiary, Henry of Anjou (King Henry II), stretched well beyond England to encompass much … Read more

By Nicholas Furlong In 1169 and 1170, events of enormous significance in the history of County Wexford—and, indeed, of Ireland—took place: the landing of Norman mercenaries in Bannow and Baginbun in south-east Wexford. By then the Norse had been in Wexford for 350 years. Their place-names and family names proclaim their presence. Examples are Tuskar, … Read more