The Normans in Ireland
BBC Hands on History
have produced an Adventure Treasure Trail around Carrickfergus (.PDF 4.40Mb) as part of their series on the Normans.
The Normans came to Ireland in 1169, landing in Co Wexford around 100 years after the Battle of Hastings. This occurred during the reign of the Plantagenet, Henry II. It was not a true invasion, as they first came in small numbers having been invited over the Irish Sea in order to help native Gaelic kings in their local struggles.
In Ireland, the Normans are usually referred to as Anglo-Normans (meaning that they descended from Normans who had originally settled in England) or, Cambro-Normans (descending from Normans who had settled in Wales).
Dublin emerged as the Norman capital and from there in February 1177 a Norman knight, John de Courcy, set out to invade eastern Ulster. De Courcy led a small army of 22 armoured horsemen and around 300 soldiers on foot.
De Courcy first captured Downpatrick, the capital of the Dál Fiatach kingdom then ruled by Ruaidhri Mac Duinnshleibhe (Rory Mac Donleavy). Over the next few years de Courcy attempted to extend and consolidate his position, in the process winning and losing several battles in what is now eastern and southern Northern Ireland.
De Courcy sought to build his main centre at Carrickfergus where he began to erect a castle around 1177. The castle was only partially completed up to 1181. After that date, a period of truce with the native Irish left de Courcy free to finish his castle in peace.
From then until 1199 John de Courcy consolidated his newly won territory, building further castles, founding towns and abbeys and granting out lands to his chief supporters. These were people such as the de Logans, the Savages, Hackets and FitzRoberts. Archaeologists call these chief tenants his barons.
In 1199, de Courcy fell foul of the new King John and Hugh de Lacy, younger son of Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, was encouraged to make war on de Courcy. The conflict lasted until 1204 when Hugh de Lacy finally expelled de Courcy and was then created Earl of Ulster by King John.
In turn however, de Lacy too fell foul of the Crown and was expelled from Ulster in 1210 by an army led by King John himself. Restored to favour under King Henry III, in 1227 de Lacy regained much of his lands excepting those in north Antrim which had been granted by King John to Norman Scots.
In 1264 the earldom of Ulster passed to the de Burgo family in the form of Walter de Burgo, Lord of Connacht. Walter and his son Richard, who succeeded him, strengthened the earldom through further castle building, conflict and alliance. A powerful magnate with widely held lands, Richard died in Tipperary in 1326 and was succeeded by his grandson William. William fought a short civil war for control of the earldom with his cousin Walter. Having defeated Walter, William imprisoned and starved him to death at his new castle of Northburgh in Inishowen at the mouth of Lough Foyle.
William de Burgo was subsequently murdered by his de Logan and de Mandeville tenants at Belfast in 1333. From that time the earldom declined over the next 50-100 years to have virtually disappeared by the 1500s. There was no single reason for its disappearance - climate change, the Black Death, lack of further immigration, the Bruce wars, resurgence in Gaelic power and a loss in Anglo-Norman control were all factors.
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