Medieval Ireland


We are studying the Middle Ages this year and so this week we took a look at Medieval Ireland. Ireland was inhabited mainly by Gaelic Celts, but because the tribes were not united, they frequently feuded and had wars between the tribes. Then, in 432, a man arrived who changed the course of Irish history...
Saint Patrick.

He converted Irish Chieftains to Christianity and preached peace.
In 795 the Vikings raided the island and for the next forty years destroyed the monasteries that Saint Patrick had established. The invaders eventually settled down and began mixing with the Irish peoples.
Then in 1170 the Normans invaded and they, too, began intermarrying with the Irish. In 1366, however, Lionel, who was then the self-proclaimed English governor of Ireland, ordered the Irish-Norman families to stop speaking to the Gaelic and marrying them. This demand was not accepted and the English were then looked upon as interfering foreigners.


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