Irish Literature - History, Colonialism and The
Themes of The Nation
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CONQUESTS (1)
ANGLO NORMAN TRADITIONS
AND THE IRISH WRITER
- After the death of the famous High King Brian Boru in 1014, Ireland was at almost constant civil war for
two centuries. The various families which ruled Ireland's four provinces were constantly fighting with one
another for control of all of Ireland.
- At that time Ireland was like a federal kingdom, with five provinces (Ulster, Leinster, Munster and
Connaught along with Meath, which was the seat of the High King) each ruled by kings who were all
supposed to be loyal to the High King of Ireland.
1. THE NORMAN INVASION
1152 Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster, abducts O’Rourke’s wife, Dervorgilla
1155 The Pope gives Ireland by papal Bull to Henry II
1166 Rory O’Conor and o’Rourke attack Dermot, forcing him to take refuge in Aquitaine.
1169 A Norman army, led by Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (Strongbow) lands in Ireland.
1171 Following Dermot’s death, Strongbow assumes the office of King of Leinster
1199 On John’s ascension to the English throne, the second phase of the Norman conquest is innitiated.
1366 The Statutes of Kilkenny acknowledge the Irish Revival of the 14th c.
- In the mid-1100's, two competing Irish Kings, Dermot MacMurrough of Leinster and Rory O’Connor of
Connacht, feuded over the high kingship of Ireland.
- O'Connor was victorious, and MacMurrough was sent into exile.
- MacMurrough sought aid from Henry II, King of England, and invited the Anglo-Norman Earl of Pembroke,
subsequently known as Strongbow, to invade part of Ireland and help him subdue his rival.
- Strongbow conquered much of the east, including Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin. Henry II wanted to
insure that his lords did not set up an independent, rival kingdom in Ireland; hence Henry subsequently
claimed the conquered lands as English domains. When O’Connor formally submitted to Henry in 1175
(thereby becoming the last High King in Irish history), the English conquest of Ireland (and the first holding
in the future British Empire) had begun.
- During the next two centuries English occupation in Ireland consolidated itself, and the English married
and mingled with the "native" Irish to form the Old Anglo-Irish or Old English, the elite ruling class who
constituted the great earldoms of the 14th century.
- Though English by descent, this class soon considered itself Irish, so much so that an anxiety arose
among the English about the "gaelicization" of the Anglo-Irish, resulting in the passage of the Statutes of
Kilkenny in 1366.
2. NORMAN CULTURAL INFLUENCES:
o Within the Pale feudal estates are evolved. Gradually English civil government established in Ireland:
exchequer, chancery, courts of justice, division into counties, parliament (Anglo-Irish only). During this
time the great Old English (Anglo-Norman) families—Fitzgerald, de Burgh, Butler—form their power, and
the Old Irish Kings—O’Connor, O’Brien, and O’Neill—still retain much of their ancient kingdoms.
o Southern varieties of English are introduced within the Pale. These mediaeval varieties of HibernoEnglish become the language of commerce and administration, and still survive in rural Wexford and the
north of Dublin.
o After the plantations of the 16th and 17th century, northern dialects of English and Inglis (dialect of the
Scottish lowlands) are introduced in Ireland, forming the basis of modern Hiberno-English.
3. LITERARY PRODUCTIONS:
a) Chansons des geste: The Song of Dermot and the Earl
- Chansons de geste (Old French for "songs of heroic deeds“) are the epic poetry that appears at the dawn
of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries,
nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the troubadours and the earliest verse
romances
- Composed in Old French, and made up of strophes of varying length linked by assonance - apparently
intended for oral performance by jongleurs - the chansons de geste narrate legendary incidents
(sometimes based on real events) in the history of France in the eighth and ninth centuries, the age of
Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, with emphasis on their combats against the Moors and Saracens.
- The Song of Dermot and the Earl, is a chanson de geste, composed in the mid-thirteenth century, and
assigned to Morice Regan, secretary to Dermot MacMurrough.
- The Song records Dermot’s journey to enlist the Norman support for regaining his kingdom, and the
victory of Strongbow, followed by the latter’s subsequent marriage to Aoife, Dermot’s daughter.
THE SONG OF DERMOT AND THE EARL (c.1200-25)
Quant dermod, li reis vaillant,
Al rei henri par deuant
Esteit uenus a cele fiez,
Par deuant li rei engleis,
Mult le salue curteisement,
Bien ebel deuant la gent:
‘Icil deu ke meint en haut
Reis henri, vus ward e saut,
E vu donge ensement
Quer e curage e talent
Ma hunte uenger e ma peine,
Que fet me hunte le men demeine!( )
(When Dermot, the valiant king, before King Henry had come at this time, before the English king, very
courteously he saluted him fairly and finely before his men: ‘May God who dwells on high guard and save
you, King Henry, and give you also heart and courage and will to avenge my shame and my misfortune
that my own people have brought upon me! Hear, noble King Henry, whence I was born, of what country.
Of Ireland I was born a lord, in Ireland a king; but wrongfully my own people have cast me out of my
kingdom. To you I come to make my claim, good sire, in the presence of the barons of your empire. Your
liege man I shall become henceforth all the days of my life, on condition that you be my helper so that I do
not lose at all: you I shall acknowledge as sire and lord, in the presence of your barons and lords.’ Then the
king promised him, the powerful king of England, that wilfully would he help him as soon as he should be
able.)
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