Warfare in Irish History
A historical overview of warfare in Irish culture.
Location: Ireland
Warfare in Early Ireland
Unlike Britain, Ireland was never invaded by Rome. Without much pressure from outside forces, small kingdoms struggled for power through cattle raids and warfare. Soldiers of the time valued honor over complex strategy or equipment. Armor was thought to be heavy and slow. Most used slings instead of bows and arrows. In close combat, they fought with spears, swords, and battleaxes.
Legendary Irish warriors rode chariots into battle drawn by teams of fine horses. Later, chieftains and warriors charged in on horseback, though they never developed heavy cavalry.[1] Even the druids of pre-Christian times engaged in spiritual warfare. Stories depict them raining fire on their foes and "bind[ing] their urine."[2]
For many young Irish men, warfare was a way of life. A typical young noblemen had the option of becoming a monk or a warrior for his clan. During the Middle Ages, landless young men and exiles left the island to fight as mercenaries in foreign wars. Irish kerns and gallowglasses were prized throughout Europe for their quickness and ferocity.[3]
Invasion and Rebellion in Ireland
Periodic raids and battle were a fact of life in early Ireland. But while the Gaelic lords continued their traditional warfare, the rest of Europe was advancing quickly. The difference in strength grew clear with the Anglo-Norman invasion, when the Norman conquerors of Britain turned their attention to Ireland. With the blessing of King Henry II, Pope Adrian VI, and the assistance of an exiled Irish king, the armored horsemen and archers of the Anglo-Normans soon overwhelmed the native Irish.[4]
The Anglo-Normans established footholds in Ireland, but most parts of the island remained essentially Irish. The new arrivals adopted Irish customs, including their fondness for raids and clan warfare. King Henry VIII solidified English control over Ireland through a series of new laws.[5] Rebellions rose under his daughter, Elizabeth I, whose forces made a point of burning Irish crops as they marched. Famines swept the countryside as bloody conflicts like the Eleven Years' War, O'Neill Rebellion, and Battle of the Boyne played out in its hills and farms.[6]
The Irish War of Independence
Centuries of resentment and rebellion boiled over at last in 1919, when Irish nationalists formed their own government and declared their independence from Britain. The war, waged more in the streets than on battlefields, claimed many civilian lives. In 1922, the Irish Free State was formed, splitting the island into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Free State, divided on the peace conditions, fell into a short but bloody civil war. Since then, religious and political conflict has continued in Ireland, but negotiations like the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 have slowly reduced hostilities.[7]
Bibliography
Patrick W. Joyce, A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (London, NY, and Bombay: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1906), 32-69.
Dáithí Ó HÓgáin, The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 1999), 96.
John O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees (Dublin: J. Duffy and Sons, 1887), 603-604.
Marie-Therese Flanagan, "Anglo-Norman Invasion" in Seán Duffy, Ailbhe MacShamhráin, and James Moynes, eds., Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2005), 29-32.
Henry Duff Traill, Social England: From the Accession of Henry VIII to the Death of Elizabeth (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1897), 298-302.
Ibid., 421-424.
Peter Cottrell, The Anglo-Irish War: The Troubles of 1913-1922 (Oxford: Osprey, 2006).
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