Extracts from 'A much disputed land: Carrickmines and the Dublin marches '
by Dr. Emmett O'Byrne
In the middle ages, conquest and colonisation created frontiers between native and newcomer, stretching from Prussia to Palestine, across the Iberian peninsula and onto Ireland. Ireland's most important and also most neglected frontier was that formed by the Dublin marches-the lands that lay between the city of Dublin and the neighbouring Irish princes of Leinster. Here the frontier was an ethnic patchwork in which different racial groups lived side by side. So, naturally its politics were fluid and flexible. As in some other European lands, the newcomers showed over time that they could merge into native societies, adopting their language, customs, dress and laws. On the other hand, many native families were also able to trim their sails to the realities posed by the arrival of powerful newcomers. The lack of political uniformity in the Dublin marches ensured that this hybrid region was home to considerable ethnic diversity. Having said that, these lands were to remain a violent and a much-disputed interface between the rulers of Dublin and the Leinster Irish. The purpose of this article is to place Carrickmines in this context.
Today the two townlands of Carrickmines Little and Carrickmines Great are located in the parish of Tully within the Dublin barony of Rathdown. Originally, though, Carrickmines belonged to the northern half of the Irish kingdom of Uí Briúin Chualann, a land that straddled the modern Dublin and Wicklow border. The principal secular landowners of Uí Briúin Chualann were its kings, who were drawn from the Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc dynasty. Further, the Ostmen of the city kingdom of Dublin also had substantial lands in Uí Briúin Chualann. It was their arrival at Dublin in the ninth century, and presence thereafter, that forced the borders of Uí Briúin Chualann to contract dramatically. For by the eleventh century, Ostman colonists had settled throughout northeast Wicklow. The expansion of the Ostmen into Uí Briúin Chualann can be paralleled with the gradual extension of their lordship over Ua Cathasaig's kingdom of Saithne in north Dublin. In the twelfth century, the retreating Meic Gilla Mo-Cholmóc looked south to the neighbouring Irish kingdoms of Uí Garrchon and Uí Enechglais for compensation, forcibly establishing an overlordship over them.
The most prominent Ostmen of Uí Briúin Chualann and owners of Carrickmines were the Meic Torcaill (?orkellsons), kings of Dublin for most of the twelfth century. The extent of the Mac Torcaill lands has been defined as incorporating the parish of Tully and stretching to the Dargle river at Bray. In addition to this considerable swath of territory, the Meic Torcaill also seem to have held lands in Glencullen and near Powerscourt. After 1171 the above-mentioned lands extending from Tully parish to Bray were later referred in English documents as 'the lands of the son of Turchill'. Although the Meic Torcaill had successfully expanded into the region, their prize evolved into a marchland, an interface between Ostman Dublin and the rising power of the Uí Chennselaig overkingship of Leinster. The ethnic character of the marchland can be seen in the land holdings surrounding Carrickmines. This point is amply illustrated in the pre-1169 grants to the priory of Holy Trinity at Dublin by both Irish and Ostman nobles. Before his death in 1087 at the battle of Ráth Édair, the Uí Chennselaig prince Donnchad son of Domhnall Remar made a grant to Holy Trinity of Clonkeen. On the other hand, the Meic Torcaill proved themselves generous patrons of Holy Trinity. According to King John's charter to the priory in 1202, Sighrahre son of Thorkill had earlier granted land centred around Laughanstown, an area between Carrickmines and Loughlinstown........
..............the major turning point for the Irish, Welsh and Ostmen of the Dublin marches and of Uí Briúin Chualann was the arrival of Diarmait MacMurrrough's English allies in 1169-70. The reactions of the Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc rulers of Uí Briúin Chualann and the Mac Torcaill kings of Dublin could not have been more different. This was largely due to their respective activities during the 1166 fall of MacMurrough. Then the Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc dynasty firstly proved fiercely opposed to the Leinster king. That changed after MacMurrough successfully encouraged O'Brennan to assassinate the rebellious king of Uí Briúin Chualann, allowing Domhnall Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc, MacMurrough's son-in-law, to take its kingship. On the other hand, the Meic Torcaill were long time enemies of MacMurrough. After the murder of the king of Uí Briúin Chualann, they joined High-King Ruaidrí O'Connor to force the Leinster king into exile. In September 1170 MacMurrough had his revenge, seizing Dublin from its king, Ascall Mac Torcaill. The end of Mac Torcaill kings of Dublin finally came in July 1171, culminating in their defeat by the English and Domhnall Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc and the later decapitation of Ascall in his own assembly hall.
In the past nationalist historians have tended to paint the effect of the English arrival upon the Irish in apocalyptic terms. What has been neglected is the continued survival of the old Ostman and Irish elites near Dublin and in East Leinster. Indeed, survival was ensured by their respective decisions to become anglicised to a degree. Domhnall Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc of Uí Briúin Chualann was successfully to span the ethnic divide. During the lifetime of Domhnall's son, Diarmait, their dynasty transformed itself into the Fitzdermots. Evidence of this can be shown in their names. Instead of being christened Domhnall or Diarmait, dynastic scions now bore names such as John, William, Robert and Ralph, the forenames of the conquerors. Their metamorphosis was so complete that without earlier evidence of their Irish lineage, the Fitzdermots were indistinguishable from the settler aristocracy. The only recorded trouble was either in the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries when a Donohoe Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc killed Roger fitz Gilbert, an Englishman. By 1276-7, it was clear that the descendants of the Meic Gilla Mo-Cholmóc had travelled a long way. Then Ralph Fitzdermot was paid for defending the Vale of Dublin from the MacMurroughs, while Edward I in 1282 rewarded the Fitzdermots by declaring Ralph a knight. After this date the family subsequently declined in importance, selling off their remaining eight carucates in Uí Briúin Chualann sometime after 1305. But they remained thoroughly respectable: Sir Ralph's son John fitzRalph entered the service of the archbishop of Dublin and served in 1326 as the bailiff of the manor of Shankill. They also seemed to hold onto some lands around Rathdown into the fifteenth century, for an unpublished pipe roll of Henry VI records a John son of Dermod behind in his rent in 1408. Even more remarkably it seems some of the Fitzdermots held land in north Dublin at Lusk until the middle of the sixteenth century, while William Dermot was appointed on May 4 1563 to the office of chancellor of Holy Trinity.
Having said that, others were neither so lucky nor so prudent. Naturally, the Mac Torcaill kings were the major casualty of the conquest of Dublin. After the execution of Ascall Mac Torcaill in July 1171, the Mac Torcaill lands were declared forfeit. In north Dublin, they lost their extensive holdings at Portrane, Malahide, Portmarnock and Kilbarrack. By 1174, though, Hamund Mac Torcaill and his brothers had sufficiently rehabilitated themselves to have their Kinsealy lands confirmed to them. In the marches of south Dublin, it was an entirely different story. There the Meic Torcaill were seemingly dispossessed of their lands wholesale, as Walter de Riddelesford I was granted their lands from Tully to Bray. As further punishment Strongbow also confiscated the properties of Sigerith and Torphin Mac Torcaill, granting them to the abbey of St Mary at Dublin. Perhaps after the rehabilitation of Hamund in 1174, the local Ostmen of Uí Briúin Chualann chose to acknowledge this process by granting Kilgobbin to Holy Trinity. The partial restoration of the Mac Torcaill lands in north Dublin is consistent with the English favour displayed to other Ostmen. After the collapse of the Mac Torcaill hegemony, the Ostman families of Harold and Archbold became significantly more important. The large and extended Harold lineage was incorporated within the feudal settlement from early on, particularly on the lands of the archbishop, Holy Trinity and on those of the royal manors. English favour towards this community was evident by the incorporation of the Ostmen at a higher social level than most Irish, as evidenced by 36 identifiable Ostman rents for lands within the Vale of Dublin. The emerging partnership between the English with the Irish, Welsh and Ostmen of the marches greatly facilitated the bedding down of the feudal settlement south of Dublin. However, it must be stressed that the Irish of east Leinster adopted English customs and practices to varying degrees. But in Dublin and east Leinster the colony prospered overall, living cheek by jowl with these communities. On the whole, this mutual toleration promoted mutual indulgence, resulting in a long-lived peace.............
........... The long peace in east Leinster between the Irish and the settlers gradually crumbled after the extinction of the Marshal lords of Leinster in 1245. This led to the extension of English common law into Leinster, increasing racial tension between the two communities and shortening the paths to war.
The spark that ignited the Wicklow Irish was famine, resulting in war from 1269. Primarily, the object of Carrickmines Castle was to protect the Welsh farming communities cultivating the fertile land of south Dublin. Its defenders were naturally drawn from the Howels, Walshes and later the Lawlesses. Their nexus of common interests and ambition stretched westward across south Dublin to the Harolds, Archbolds and the remnants of the Meic Torcaill. Inevitably, the O'Byrnes and the O'Tooles cast envious eyes upon the rich cereal-growing lands that Carrickmines Castle sought to protect, threatening the existence of these communities. The need to stem the Irish tide was paramount. Accordingly, Carrickmines was to assume offensive capabilities, serving from the late thirteenth century as a staging post for English expeditions to attack the Wicklow Irish. Its importance was not lost upon the Irish who saw it as a linchpin of the Pale's defences-one that had to be destroyed.
The emergence of Murchadh O'Byrne (c.1265-1338) heralded a much harder Irish line being adopted towards the settlers. From the surviving evidence, he with Fáelán and David O'Toole set about expelling the Welsh settlers from Wicklow, particularly the Fitzrhys family of Imaal and the Lawlesses of east Wicklow. For Maurice Howel, owner of Carrickmines, the fate of the Lawlesses was to be avoided. Accordingly, he sought to prop up the collapsing Lawless lordship against Murchadh, serving with Richard le Waleys and Henry O'Toole in late April 1309 on Lord Lieutenant Piers Gaveston's campaign against the O'Byrnes. The government at Dublin clearly valued the service of the Howels. In 1314 the government pardoned the offences of Maurice and several kinsmen, including an Archebaud (Archbold) Howel, along with Richard le Waleys, Richard Roth le Waleys and Robert Lawless because of their service in Offaly and the Leinster mountains. Subsequent events proved why Howel and his men were pardoned. In response to the defeats of the O'Mores in late 1315 and early 1316, Murchadh O'Byrne exacted a terrible revenge upon the settlers of east Wicklow. Before Lent 1316 he lined up with the O'Tooles and disgruntled elements of the Harolds and Archbolds to devastate the remnants of the Fitzgerald barony of Wicklow, culminating in the sack of the Wicklow town. The devastation wreaked by the O'Byrnes on the Fitzgerald Wicklow lands was so thorough that no rents could be collected from them that year. From the surviving evidence, Murchadh was steadily eradicating the English presence in east Wicklow, forcing their evacuation of lands and farms. This process starkly mirrored the tactics he employed against the settlers of Shillelagh in 1295-6. Hugh Lawless, leader of the settlers of east Wicklow, pleaded before Lord Edmund Butler in February 1316 for relief from the O'Byrne onslaught, graphically describing the terrible plight of the Wicklow settlers, caught in 'a confined and narrow part of the country, namely between Newcastle McKynegan and Wicklow, where they have the sea between Wales and Ireland for a wall on one side, and the mountains of Leinster and divers other wooded and desert places on the other where the said Irish felons live'. Lawless did not mince his words: 'by the malice and wantonness of the Irish of the mountains of Leinster, felons of the king, they have been expelled and removed from their fortresses, manors and houses up to the present, and many of the said faithful subjects of the king have been slain by the said Irish felons'.
The remorseless advance of Murchadh O'Byrne brought Maurice Howel back into Wicklow, serving from November 1316 to January 1317 as part of the garrison of Newcastle McKynegan in east Wicklow. Howel again served as guardian of the Leinster marches during 1324-25, earning £26 13s. 4d. In spite of Howel's service, the settlers in Wicklow steadily crumbled, allowing the O'Byrne horsemen waste the lands of Carrickmines and the rich farms of south Dublin. Even though war was lapping against the walls of Carrickmines, successive priors of Holy Trinity continued to entrust Maurice Howel with the defence of their lands. In August 1329 he, with Thomas Harold and Thomas Archbold, served against the O'Byrnes, while he delivered some O'Tooles into custody during 1334. But after the middle of the 1330s, Howel and the priors became resigned to adopting a far more flexible approach towards the Irish. Between 1339 and 1344 the priory had intimate dealings with Irish dynasts such as Gerald son of Dúnlaing O'Byrne and 'Fynnok' O'Toole, and was engaged in trade for timber with the Irish. The reality, though, was ceaseless Irish aggression. In 1344, John Chamburleyn, bailiff of Clonkeen, recorded payments in his account of 4d. to two men, who spent two nights on the top of the mountains, watching for Irish raiders.
In response to the endemic violence, English policy was increasingly directed towards the establishment of friendly Irish in the lordships bordering Dublin. This policy may have been designed to prevent co-ordinated attacks of the Leinster Irish upon the English outposts. To cope with the growing strength of the Irish incursions into the Pale, Carrickmines Castle was refortified in early 1359. No doubt the importance of Carrickmines as a defensive site increased due to the policies of Justiciar Thomas Rokeby. In 1350 Rokeby had developed a new English policy directed towards the establishment of friendly lordships bordering Dublin. As part of this policy Rokeby, on April 23, presided over the election of Walter Harold as head of his sept. Interestingly, Walter Harold's electoral college consisted of electors drawn from the Archbold, Howel, Walsh and Lawless families, including Peter Howel, Richard fitz Michael Howel, Elias fitz Robert Walsh and Hugh fitz Robert Lawless, later constable of Newcastle McKynegan in 1353. These families with their backs to the wall-and the sea-had everything to fight for. It is likely there was little room for them among the plans of the O'Byrnes. Clearly, the Welsh and the Ostmen had developed a united front, resulting in the emergence of an overall captaincy of the borderlands of south Dublin.
From 'A much disputed land: Carrickmines and the Dublin marches ' by Dr Emmett O'Byrne (UCD), Dublin Medieval IV (Ed Sean Duffy) available from Four Courts Press (Dublin) and a must read for anyone interested in the history of Medieval Dublin. Also from Four Courts Press is Dr O'Byrne's 'War, Politics and the Irish of Leinster 1156 - 1606'
