Wherever the Anglo-Normans found soils to their taste, or a strategic point worth defending they erected an earthen mote, later replaced by a castle in places of special importance. On the whole they did not advance beyond a line running from Skibereen through Galway to Cooleraine and settled most densely in in Leinster [...]]]>

Wherever the Anglo-Normans found soils to their taste, or a strategic point worth defending they erected an earthen mote, later replaced by a castle in places of special importance. On the whole they did not advance beyond a line running from Skibereen through Galway to Cooleraine and settled most densely in in Leinster East Munster, which were to prove a centre from which Irish forces would frequently emerge to have the farms and towns of the surrounding town-lands. The basic Anglo-Norman unit was the manor, extending perhaps to 3,000 acres and here the lord would have his home-farm or stead, often protected by a moat, containing his house and his farm-buildings, with its surrounding fields. Other large farm units would be given to supporters, linked to the lord by allegiance as well as rent, to rent-paying individual farmers, and to borough communities and burgesses, with land in common, and their own court and other privileges. The holders of these larger units came from outside Ireland. The population explosion in Western Europe and in England at the time, had brought about men anxious for tenancies of good arable land in return for payment of money in services and in kind.

They strove hard to ensure that the Gaelic Irish people would remain to herd cattle and till the soil, as they had been doing under their native chieftains. Now for the first time the Neolithic (systematic) type agriculture and estate management was put into practice. Monastic orders, such the Carmelites, Augustinians, Franciscans, built the local parish church nearby and large farm units were divided amongst supporters who were linked to the overlord through allegiance and through rent.

TAKE a look at the “new” map of Ireland, the image which shows we own quite a bit more of the sea floor than previously thought. The final results of a seabed survey, carried out by the Marine Institute and the Geological Survey of Ireland, are still being finalised, but Ireland can lay [...]]]>

TAKE a look at the “new” map of Ireland, the image which shows we own quite a bit more of the sea floor than previously thought. The final results of a seabed survey, carried out by the Marine Institute and the Geological Survey of Ireland, are still being finalised, but Ireland can lay claim to 220 million acres of seabed — gaining a significant amount of territory, primarily off the south-west coast. Some of the new seabed area is more than 3km below the surface. The map will be included in the Folens/Phillips New Irish Primary Atlas to be used in classrooms around the country this autumn. In addition, an educational programme entitled Explorers, which has been running in 40 schools in Galway and which looks at various aspects of marine life, will be extended on a pilot basis to schools in Dublin in the coming school year. Dr John Joyce, communications manager with the Marine Institute, said while some finer details from the survey are still being processed, the new section off the south-west of the country that was added to Ireland’s continental shelf was ratified last year by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The map was made using acoustic and laser technology from a variety of research vessels, survey ships and airborne platforms. “We have a very detailed three dimensional map of Ireland’s underwater geography,” Dr Joyce said. He said one of the main reasons for the survey was to define where the continental slope meets the abyssal plain, the boundary at which coastal nations can lay a claim to parts of the sea floor. Details of the sub-bottom geology analysis — the murky depths, to you and me — have yet to be finalised. This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, August 20, 2010 (By Noel Baker)