Page 166 - Demo

166 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
During the third century of Ireland’s occupation, mainly from about 1418-1535, the power and influence of the English colonists was reduced to its narrowest limits, as an ascending spirit of nationality, including importantly, education and culture, was shared by Gaedhil and Sean-Ghaill alike; this period is sometimes referred to as the ‘Second Irish Revival.’
This reawakeing was, of course, chiefly due to the fact that for the greater part of this period, the English Kings from the reign of Richard 11 to that of Henry V11, were pr-oc- cupied with their own affairs and largely left Ireland alone. The protracted military conflict with France known as ‘The Hundred Years War’still dragged on, and when it finally came to an end, about 1430, it heralded another period of great disturbance in England, the cli- max of which was the dreary and bloody, thirty- year long Civil War between the adherents of the House of Lancaster and those of the House of York now known as “The War of the Roses.” A contention that ended in favour of the Lancastrians, when at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, Henry of Richmond, afterwards Henry V11, defeated the Yorkists under Richard 111. To quote an eminent English historian, Henry Hallam “The long civil wars of England consummated the ruin of its power over the sister island of Ireland.”
At this time, the only part of Ireland that was under the effective rule of the Viceroy and paid taxes to the government in Dublin, was a narrow strip of country along the east coast. Often called ‘the English Land,’ but more commonly known as “The Pale,” from the fact that there was actually a “pale” or low wall built round it to protect it from the hostile Irish who hugged its borders or marches, the extent of the lands occcupied by the Pale fluctuated from time to time. Derived from the Latin, Palus, a stake, and meaning the territory within which most of the English retired after their furst successes, its minimum size was reached in 1515 when its limits were as follows: starting from Dundalk in county Louth, its boundary ran by Ardee,also in Louth, Kells in county Meath, Kilcock in county Kildare; then to Naas, Kilcullen and Ballymore-Eustace, also in Kildare, whence it went through Rathmore county Meath, to Tallaght and Dalkey in Dublin: it encompassed an area roughly forty-eight kilo- meters long by thirty-two kilometers wide.
Within the Pale the King’s writ ran; without it, the relations between men were regulated by the Brehon Law or by a combination of the Brehon Law and feudal customs. In other words, outside the Pale, the chiefs of the Gaedhil and the Sean-Ghaill ruled their territories like absolute monarchs and paid only nominal allegiance to their English overlord. As a re-
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