Page 3 - A Ancient East (complete)_Neat

cavalry and the longbow. Although the Irish horsemen were skilled skirmish-
ers, they could not take on their enemies in the open.

This explains how the borders of what was called the Irishry of the south-east
became established. A divide was created along ecological lines between the
lowlands that the invaders managed to capture and deforest, and the wood-
lands and uplands that the natives held.

To the north of the Gaelic territory lay the plains of Dublin; to the west were
the flatlands of Kildare. This low-lying and highly fertile country became the
southern reaches of the English Pale which surrounded the capital city. There
was a low coastal plain along the east but—being backed by a hinterland of
hill country that was covered by impenetrable woodland and wildlands—it
was a difficult place for the English to dominate. The same factors gave rise to
the location of the southern borders of the Irishry in north Wexford, parts of
south Wicklow and the western parts of County Carlow.

During the early part of the conquest and roughly up to the time that the Tu-
dors came to power in England, the MacMurrough-Kavanaghs dominated the
Irishry. They held its southern reaches, which covered the northern half of
County Wexford and much of County Carlow. Later they exerted less influ-
ence over the other two tribes: the O’Tooles (who were associated with north-
ern and western portions of the region) and the O’Byrnes (who tended to be
associated with the eastern side of the Wicklow mountains and the coastal
plain). The upland component of this tribe (those of Glenmalure) suddenly
th
emerged as a defiant and obstinate entity in mid-16 century and became a
thorn in the side of Elizabethan England.

Ill-defined borders

The shared Gaelic—Anglo-Norman border, which became an ill-defined flexi-
ble margin of contested territory, shifted, shrank or expanded in response to
the factors that created the balance of power between both sides over the
course of time. A no-man’s-land became established between the competing
parties and was known as “the marches”.

During the first 100 years of colonisation, the Irish were on the defensive. But
they later resurged and took back some of the lands they had lost. The Black
Death (c. 1350), which left native areas largely unaffected added to Anglo-
Norman woes. The success of the resurgence in Leinster can be gauged by
happenings along the royal highway through the Barrow valley that kept Dub-
lin in contact with the English in Munster and divided the Gaelic tribes of East
and West Leinster.

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