Varieties of Irishness

I. Celts/Gaels

fine

tuath

"Five Fifths of Ireland"/ Ireland's ancient provinces

Brehon Law

Cuchulain
Yeats, "Cuchulain's Fight with the Sea"

II. Christianization/ Vikings

St. Patrick (5th century)

flourishing of Gaelic Christianity in second half of first millenium

Viking raids at end of 8th century

Dublin (841)

Brian Boru

III. The Anglo-Normans (1169-1300)

Henry II [BBC link]

Henry II

Strongbow

Old English

Laudabiliter (1155) Pope Adrian IV

Richard de Clare, former Earl of Pembroke, aka Strongbow

Dublin Castle

Common Law

Irish Parliament

Anglo-Norman lords: earls of Kildare, Ormond, and Desmond

the Pale

Declaration of Irish Parliament (1297): "Englishmen also, who have become degenerate in recent times, dress themselves in Irish garments and having their heads half shaven, grow the hair from the back of the head, which they call the 'culan,' conforming themselves to the Irish as well in garb as in countenance, whereby it frequently happens that Englishmen reputed as Irishmen are slain, although the killing of Englishmen and of Irishmen requires different modes of punishment.... And therefore it is agreed...that all Englishmen in this land wear, at least in that part of the head which persents itself to view, the mode and tonsure of Englishmen...."

Statutes of Kilkenny

Oxford English Dictionary [library homepage > databases > dnb]