Gaelic recovery

Gaelic recovery is a phrase describing the gradual emancipation of many Irish chieftaincies in the later Middle Ages from the control of the English king and the Dublin administration, partly as a result of military action by the chiefs themselves, partly because of internal decline in the Anglo‐Irish colony.

Eoin MacNeill saw this recovery as beginning in the mid‐13th century, reflected in military victories like the defeat of the Fitzgeralds by the O'Donnells at Credran near Sligo in 1257 and the battle of Callan (1261), in the use of gallowglasses by O'Connor and O'Donnell leaders, and in the recognition of Brian O'Neill as king over all the Gaels of Ireland. However this last initiative was to end in O'Neill's defeat at the battle of Down (1260), and the later 13th century saw further expansion and tightening of colonial control in the west under Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster and lord of Connacht, and Thomas (d. 1287) and Richard de Clare (d. 1318), lords of Thomond.

Ultimately the most significant revolts of the 13th century were those of the Leinster Irish (1271–7, and 1295 onwards). They were closest to Dublin, the administrative centre of the lordship, their territorial expansion was at the expense of the colonized area, and medieval governors never found a lasting solution to the threat they posed. Elsewhere it was the 14th century that was the period of major advance for the chieftains. The invasion of Edward Bruce hastened the colony's decline and the disruption provided additional opportunities for rebellion. After the battle of Dysert O'Dea (1318) the O'Brien lordship became effectively autonomous, and the assassination in 1333 of William de Burgh, earl of Ulster and lord of Connacht, led to the independence of Connacht under his rebel cousins, the de Burgh or Burke lords of Mayo. Meanwhile the O'Neills of Cenél nEógain gradually rebuilt a province‐wide lordship over the other Ulster chiefs, hindered only by the rivalry of the O'Donnells, and their own kinsmen, the O'Neills of Clandeboye.

Outside Leinster, the main gains of the recovery were political rather than territorial. To the Anglo‐Irish the chiefs were subjects in the 13th century, enemies and felons in the 14th, and potential allies in the 15th. The effort to rebuild past overkingships meant that much of the fighting took place between the chieftains themselves, and was accompanied by a revival of interest in pre‐Norman art and literature (see gaelic cultural revival). This interest was shared by the Anglo‐Irish marcher lords, whose power also grew with the weakening of royal government (see gaelicization). By the end of the 15th century it was these who came to dominate both Irish chiefs and Anglo‐Irish towns beyond the Pale area.

Bibliography

Cosgrove, A. (ed.), A New History of Ireland, vol. ii (1987)
Nicholls, K. , Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages (1972)
Simms, K. , From Kings to Warlords (1987)

Katharine Simms