Normans in Ireland

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Ireland in 1300 showing maximum extent of Hiberno-Norman control

Hiberno-Normans, or Norman Irish (

feudal aristocracy and merchant oligarchy, known as the Lordship of Ireland. The Hiberno-Normans were also closely associated with the Gregorian Reform of the Catholic Church in Ireland and were responsible for the emergence of Hiberno-English
.

Some of the most prominent Hiberno-Norman families were the

Irish surnames, Walsh
, derives from Welsh Normans who arrived in Ireland as part of this group.

The dominance of the Hiberno-Normans declined during the 16th century after the

Irish Protestant identity, which also included later settler groups such as the Ulster Scots and Huguenots
.

Nomenclature

Historians use different terms to refer to the Normans in Ireland at different times in its existence, depending on how they define this community's sense of collective identity.

In his book Surnames of Ireland, Irish historian Edward MacLysaght makes a distinction between Hiberno-Norman and Anglo-Norman surnames summing up fundamental differences between "English Rebels" (Hiberno-Norman) and "Loyal Lieges" (Anglo-Normans).

The Geraldines of

Desmond or the Burkes of Connacht, for instance, could accurately be described as Old English, for that was their political and cultural world. Likewise Butlers of Ormond, could accurately be described as Hiberno-Norman in their political outlook and alliances even after they married into the royal family
.

Some historians refer to them as

Cambro-Normans – Seán Duffy of Trinity College Dublin
, invariably uses that term.

After many centuries in Ireland following just a century in Wales or England it appears odd that their entire history since 1169 is known by the description Old English, which only came into use in the late 16th century. Some contend it is ahistorical to trace a single Old English community back to 1169, for the concept of Ireland's "Old English" community only emerged in the sixteenth century Pale. The earliest known reference to the term "Old English" is in the 1580s.[1][dubious – discuss] Up to that time the identity of such people had been much more fluid; it was the Loyalist administration's policies which created an oppositional and clearly defined Old English community.

Fionnghaill and Dubhghaill. He argued in a lecture to the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute in University College Dublin that the poets referred to hibernicised people of Norman stock as Dubhghaill in order to grant them a longer vintage in Ireland than the Fionnghaill (meaning 'fair-haired foreigners', i.e. Norwegian Vikings as opposed to Dubhghaill meaning 'black-haired foreigners', i.e. Danish Vikings). This follows on from his earlier arguments that the term Éireannaigh (Irish people) as we currently know it also emerged during this period in the poetry books of the Uí Bhroin of Wicklow, as a sign of unity between Gaeil and Gaill; he viewed it as a sign of an emerging Irish nationalism
. Breandán Ó Buachalla essentially agreed with him, Tom Dunne and Tom Bartlett were less sure.

It was noted in 2011 that Irish nationalist politicians elected between 1918 and 2011 could often be distinguished by surname. Fine Gael parliamentarians were more likely to bear surnames of Norman origin than those from Fianna Fáil, who had a higher concentration of Gaelic surnames.[2]

"Old English" vs. New English

The term Old English (

Roman Catholic
religion.

Following the

Irish Catholic by 1700, as they were both barred from positions of wealth and power by the so-called New English settlers, who became known as the Protestant Ascendancy
.

The community of Norman descent prior to then used numerous epithets to describe themselves (such as "Englishmen born in Ireland" or "

Anglican Catholicism
.

History

Normans in medieval Ireland

Coat of Arms of the Lordship of Ireland
Ireland in 1450 showing territories recognising Anglo-Norman sovereignty in blue and grey

Traditionally, London-based Anglo-Norman governments expected the Normans in the

Yola and Fingallian
), used English law, and in some respects lived in a manner similar to that found in England.

However, in the provinces, the Normans in Ireland (

legal system, and other customs such as fostering and intermarriage with the Gaelic Irish and the patronage of Irish poetry and music. Such people became regarded as "more Irish than the Irish themselves" as a result of this process (see also History of Ireland (1169–1536)). The most accurate name for the Gaelicised Anglo-Irish throughout the late medieval period was Hiberno-Norman, a name which captures the distinctive blended culture which this community created and within which it operated until the Tudor conquest. In an effort to halt the ongoing Gaelicisation of the Anglo-Irish community, the Irish Parliament passed the Statutes of Kilkenny
in 1367, which among other things banned the use of the Irish language, the wearing of Irish clothes, as well as prohibiting the Gaelic Irish from living within walled towns.

The Pale

The Pale in 1488

Despite these efforts, by 1515, one official lamented, that "all the common people of the said half counties [of The Pale] that obeyeth the King's laws, for the most part be of Irish birth, of Irish habit, and of Irish language."[4] English administrators such as Fynes Moryson, writing in the last years of the sixteenth century, shared the latter view of the Anglo-Irish: "the English Irish and the very citizens (excepting those of Dublin where the lord deputy resides) though they could speak English as well as we, yet commonly speak Irish among themselves, and were hardly induced by our familiar conversation to speak English with us".[5] Moryson's views on the cultural fluidity of the so-called English Pale were echoed by other commentators such as Richard Stanihurst who, while protesting the Englishness of the Palesmen in 1577, opined that "Irish was universally gaggled in the English Pale".[6]

Earl of Kildare's
siege of Dublin in 1535

Beyond the Pale, the term 'English', if and when it was applied, referred to a thin layer of landowners and nobility, who ruled over

Anglican Catholic Church of Ireland
.

Tudor conquest and arrival of New English

Main article: Reformation in Ireland
Sir Peter Carew

In contrast to previous English settlers, the New English, that wave of settlers who came to Ireland from England during the

Irish Catholic
identity.

The first confrontation between the Old English and the English government in Ireland came with the cess crisis of 1556–1583. During that period, the Pale community resisted paying for the English army sent to Ireland to put down a string of revolts which culminated in the Desmond Rebellions (1569–1573 and 1579–1583). The term "Old English" was coined at this time, as the Pale community emphasised their English identity and loyalty to the Stuart Crown and refusing to co-operate with the wishes of the Elizabeth's Parliament as represented in Ireland by the Lord Deputy of Ireland.

Monument marking the site of the capture and execution of the Earl of Desmond James FitzMaurice FitzGerald in Glanageenty forest, County Kerry.

Originally, the conflict was a civil issue, as the Palesmen objected to paying new taxes that had not first been approved by them in the

James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald portrayed their rebellion as a "Holy War", and indeed received money and troops from the papal coffers. In the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583), a prominent Pale lord, James Eustace, Viscount of Baltinglass, joined the rebels from religious motivation. Before the rebellion was over, several hundred Old English Palesmen had been arrested and sentenced to death, either for outright rebellion, or because they were suspected rebels because of their religious views. Most were eventually pardoned after paying fines of up to 100 pounds, a very large sum for the time. However, twenty landed gentlemen from some of the Pale's leading Old English families were executed; some of them "died in the manner of [Roman] Catholic martyrs, proclaiming they were suffering for their religious beliefs".[8]

This episode marked an important break between the Pale and the English regime in Ireland, and between the Old English and the New English.

Emerging Loyalism

In the subsequent Nine Years' War (1594–1603), the Pale and the Old English towns remained loyal[9] being in favour of outward loyalty to the English Crown during another rebellion.

However, it was the English Government's administration in Ireland along loyalist lines particularly following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 that would lead to severing the main political ties between the Old English and England itself.

First, in 1609, Roman Catholics were banned from holding public office in Ireland forcing many Old English like the Dillons to outwardly adopt Anglican Catholicism. Then, in 1613, the constituencies of the Irish Parliament were changed so that the New English would have a slight majority in the Irish House of Commons. Thirdly, in the 1630s, many members of the Old English landowning class were forced to confirm the ancient title to their land-holdings often in the absence of title deeds, which resulted in some having to pay substantial fines to retain their property, while others ended up losing some or all of their land in this complex legal process (see Plantations of Ireland).

The political response of the Old Anglo-Irish community was forced to go over the heads of the New English in Dublin and appeal directly to their sovereign in his role as

King of Ireland
which further disgruntled them.

The Graces

First from

religious toleration and civil equality for Roman Catholics in return for their payment of increased taxes. On several occasions in the 1620s and 1630s, however, after they had agreed to pay the higher taxes to the Crown, they found that the Monarch or his Irish viceroy Thomas Wentworth chose instead to defer some of the agreed concessions. This was to prove culturally counterproductive for the cause of the English administration in Ireland, as it led to Old English writers, such as Geoffrey Keating
to argue (as Keating did in Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (1634)), that the true identity of the Old English was now Roman Catholic and Irish, rather than English. English policy thus hastened the assimilation of the Old English with the Gaels.

Resisting English Parliament

Further information:
Penal Laws (Ireland)
Irish Confederacy
(1642-1652), an independent government composed of Gaelic and Old English Catholic aristocrats

In 1641, many of the Old English community made a decisive break with their past as loyal subjects by joining the

Established Church
.

Protestant Ascendancy

In the course of the eighteenth century under the Protestant Ascendancy, social divisions were defined almost solely in

Penal Laws which discriminated against them both, and a country becoming increasingly Parliamentarian
, the old distinction between Old English and Gaelic Irish Roman Catholics gradually faded away,

Changing religion, or rather conforming to the

Lord Edward Fitzgerald
, was a brother of the second duke.

Norman surnames in Ireland

Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Maynooth, Naas, and Llansteffan, progenitor of the Irish FitzGerald dynasty
Hugh de Lacy, the 1st Lord of Meath
Richard de Clare "Strongbow", Lord of Leinster through his marriage to Aoife MacMurrough

The following is a list of Hiberno-Norman surnames, many of them unique to Ireland. For example, the prefix

Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig had to take as part of his submission to Henry VIII in 1537,[11] and FitzDermot was Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc of the Uí Dúnchada sept of the Uí Dúnlainge based at Lyons Hill, County Dublin).[12]

Hiberno-Norman texts

The annals of Ireland make a distinction between Gaill and Sasanaigh. The former were split into Fionnghaill or Dubhghaill, depending upon how much the poet wished to flatter his patron.[13]

There are a number of texts in Hiberno-Norman French, most of them administrative (including commercial) or legal, although there are a few literary works as well.

Statute of Kilkenny
and municipal documents.

The major literary text is

Dermot McMurrough and Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (known as "Strongbow").[16] Other texts include the Walling of New Ross composed about 1275, and early 14th century poems about the customs of Waterford
.

See also

Normans elsewhere

References

  1. ^ Canny, Nicholas, From Reformation to Restoration: Ireland 1534–1660 (Dublin 1987); the third volume in the Helicon history of Ireland paperback series.
  2. ^ Collins, Stephen. "FF and FG tribal split traced back to 12th century". The Irish Times.
  3. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199234837.001.0001/acref-9780199234837-e-1420
    .
  4. ^ "State of Ireland & plan for its reformation" in State Papers Ireland, Henry VIII, ii, 8
  5. ^ Cited in Graham Kew (ed.), The Irish Sections of Fynes Moryson's unpublished itinerary (Dublin: IMC, 1998), p. 50.
  6. ^ Cited in S. J. Connolly, Contested Island: Ireland 1460–1630 (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 29.
  7. ^ See Vincent Carey, "Bi-lingualism and identity formation in sixteenth-century Ireland", in Hiram Morgan, ed., Political Ideology in Ireland, 1541–1641 (Dublin, 1999) for a study of this aspect of Old English culture and identity.
  8. ^ Colm Lennon, Sixteenth Century Ireland: The Incomplete Conquest, pp. 204–205
  9. ^ Colm Lennon, Sixteenth Century Ireland: The Incomplete Conquest, p. 322. "Despite the proclamations of O'Neill ... there is little evidence that the townsfolk and Pale gentry were in sympathy with the Ulster chieftain's war, and in this they had the backing of leading Jesuits such as Father Richard Field SJ. Whatever their common Catholicism, any links with the Spanish monarchy were strongly eschewed by the vast majority of those of 'Old English' origin in Ireland."
  10. ^ Edward MacLysaght, Guide to Irish Surnames (1965)
  11. ^ O'Hart, John (1892). "Princes of Ossory: Fitzpatrick (No.1) family genealogy - Irish Pedigrees". www.libraryireland.com. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Archaeological Assessment at Constitution Hill" (PDF). Dublin City Council. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  13. Brendan Bradshaw demonstrated, used as a greater compliment. Normans were, of course, originally "men of the North" i.e. from Scandinavia. See CELT (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/publishd.html
    ) for English translations of these distinctions made in all the principal late medieval Irish annals.
  14. ^ "Hiberno-Norman French Texts". celt.ucc.ie.
  15. ^ "CELT: Hiberno-Norman French: A Bibliography in Progress". celt.ucc.ie.
  16. ^ "Song of Dermot and the Earl". celt.ucc.ie.

Further reading

  • Healy, John (1892). "The Anglo-Norman Invasion" . The ancient Irish church (1 ed.). London: Religious Tract Society. pp. 181–86.
  • Lomas, Richard (2022). The Normans in Ireland: Leinster, 1167–1247 (1st ed.). Birlinn.
  • Duffy, Seán (1997). Ireland in the Middle Ages (1st ed.). Macmillan.
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