By 1100AD Dublin, along with Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick had developed as a trading towns by their Viking founders, doing a large trade with Bristol and Wales, with the emphasis on shipbuilding, slaves and commerce. By the time this prosperity had been achieved the Vikings had ceased to be pagan conquerors at war with the native Gaels. They had become Christian, peaceful and permanently settled. Nevertheless they had settled mainly in the coast towns that they had founded. Similar thing happened in England, Wales and Western France.  The Normans that conquered England in 1066 came from Normandy in Northern France. However, they were originally Vikings-Plunders from Scandinavia. At the beginning of the tenth century, the French King, Charles the Simple, had given some land in the North of France to a Viking chief named Rollo. He hoped that by giving the Vikings their own land in France they would stop attacking France. The land became known as Northmannia, the land of the Northmen. It was later shortened to Normandy. The Vikings intermarried with the French and by the year 1000, they were no longer Viking pagans, but French speaking Christians. In the year 1030 a group of Normans conquered land in Italy. .  After the Battle of Hastings the Normans had taken control of England and Wales. Although the Normans are best remembered for their military achievements, they also showed remarkable skill in government. The Normans established many schools, monasteries, cathedrals and churches in both Italy and England and built many castles to defend their new land.

In Ireland by 1156 the struggle for political supremacy lay between Murtough MacLochlainn of Ailech in the northern part of Ireland – the most powerful king in Ireland and supported by MacMurrough King of Leinster, and Rory O’Connor of Connaught – supported by O’Rourkes of Breffini. The struggle swayed to and fro, from Ulster to Leinster, to Connaught to Munster, with endless campaigns, cattle-raids, burnings, and atrocities until O’Connor won out. MacMurrough was belittled and decided to look for assistance from King Henry the 11 of England. Henry was French rather than English and spent most of his time in France. He was born in Normandy, reared in France and spoke Norman French, not English. Most of his life was spent there as England was only part of his Angevin empire which embraced England, Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Poitou and Aquitaine and he had sovereign claims also over Toulouse, Wales and Scotland. Henry like other Normans of his time had perceived ideas of Ireland. He was influenced no doubt by the English Church Hierarchy after the religious See of Dublin opted to become an Irish archbishopric in 1155, spurning the ecclesiastical rule of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England.  The English Church suddenly felt that the Irish Church had strayed away from Latin Christianity.  They claimed ‘that the Irish clergy did not obey Rome and that it was allied to the Coptic Church doctrine’. This was a very suitable pretext for Henry to talk to Pope Adrian 1V. Of course Henry did not tell the Pope that he had a “land grabbing” addiction. However, this was more often than not the excuse that the Normans used for invading the many countries in Europe. The crusading ideal was still very much in vogue in mainland Europe and was sometimes invoked as a pretext for an invasion. Henry was granted a papal bull, Laudabiliter by the only English pope Adrian 1V, authorizing him to invade Ireland in order to reform the church.  And Henry 11 permitted Diamuid McMurragh, King of Leinster to invite Richard FitzGilbert de Clare better-known as Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke to Irish shores provided he (King Henry 11) was recognized as the overlord of the King of Leinster. However, F.X. Martin in his review of his Conquest questions the authenticity of some of the above. According to Martin forgery was a thriving industry in the twelfth century to possibly justify invasions or otherwise.

For an account of the Norman invasion of Ireland we are lucky in having a firsthand account by  Gerald [de Barri or Gerald of Wales] – Giraldus Cambrensis (c1146-1223) was related to King Henry 11 and to many of the first Norman leaders who came to Ireland. He had spent many years in France was very aware of the Norman take over in Western France and southern Italy as well as England and Wales. Being closely related by blood or marriage to many of the first Norman leaders who came to Ireland, he gained much valuable information from them about pioneering years in the country.  He was Archdeacon of Brecon, was a medieval clergyman. It should also be noted that Philip de Barry – the elder brother of Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) was granted lands strategically placed in between Cork City and Youghal.     By 1206, a charter of King John confirms the existence of Barryscourt manor at Carrigtwohill close to the medieval settelemnt of Cloyne. It contained approximately 10,000 acres of some of the best land. His book Expugnatio Hibernica – The Conquest of Ireland – edited with translation by A.B. Scott and F.X. Martin is revealing regarding our soils and climate but biased with regards to our people. He writes:

‘Following up on his promise of aid Robert FitzStephen landed on the southern coast of County Wexford at Bannow on 1st of May 1169. They had with about 400 strong – Norman, Welsh and Flemish forces in three ships. The following day Maurice de Prendergast with a force of about 200 reinforced FitzStephen’s group. Merging with a force of near 500 Irishmen under MacMurrough, the combined army marched toward the Viking-Irish seaport of Wexford, where battle began outside the walls of the town. Encountering the Norse army —– the Viking-Irish retired within their own walls. Following assaults on the walled town, the Viking-Irish called for terms of peace which ultimately led to their recognition, once again, of Dermot as their overlord. At this time, Dermot granted lands in Wexford to Robert FitzStephen and his half-brother Maurice FitzGerald, as well as to Hervey de Monte Marisco, an uncle of Strongbow. In 1170 Waterford was captured by Strongbow (Earl of Pembroke, Richard FitzGilbert de Clare) and afterwards they routed Roderick O’Connor’s army in Dublin’.

Land Grants

Word reached Henry of the rapid success of the Normans in Ireland. It was too rapid for his liking. He knew how bold and independent these Normans barons were. He feared that Strongbow might declare himself as king. Quickly gathering a large army, he sailed from Wales landed in Waterford in October 1171. To win favour of the Irish he called a halt to the Norman conquest, he recognized Dermot McCarthy king of Munster, after Dermot promised to pay Henry tribute. From Waterford he marched to Cashel, where Donal Mor O’Brien, King of Thomond, and others submitted. To win the support of the clergy, Henry let it be known that Pope Adrian had asked him to come to Ireland to root out religious abuses. When the bishops heard this they gave him their support. While other Irish princes also submitted, Roderick O’Connor and the Northern princes did not. Henry in turn gave those that did large tracts of land in return. To curtail Strongbow who had most of Leinster, Henry made Hugh de Lacy his Deputy or viceroy as well giving him Co. Meath. Maurice Fitzgerald his uncle got most of Offaly and Naas. In 1185 Henry’s son Prince John was sent to Ireland and made further grants of lands including North Tipperary and part of Kilkenny to Theobald Walter (his butler) and for that reason that family came to be called Butlers. Later they built Kilkenny Castle and became the Earls of Ormonde. He granted William de Burgo (Burke) most of Galway.

The total conquest was almost complete within thirty years. The Munster conquest was made easier by continuing struggle between MacCarthys and the O’Briens for its domination.  By the treaty of Windsor in 1175 Rory O’Connor pledged himself to recognize Henry 11 as the overlord and to collect annual tribute for him from all parts of Ireland, while Henry agreed to accept Rory as “Ard-Ri” (High-King) of the unconquered areas. The scheme broke down for two reasons – Rory was “Ard-Ri” in name only; he found it hard to enforce authority even in his own territory in Connaught. Secondly, Henry 11 could not restrain his barons in Ireland from seizing more Irish land, and he himself made several grants of large areas without consulting Rory or the Irish kings. The Normans ended up owning all good lands in the plains, the coasts, and the riverways. They left the hill-country, the woods and the boglands to the native Irish. Henry reserved to himself Dublin and its hinterland, and the coastal land from Bray to Arklow, also Wexford, Waterford and the adjoining district as far as Dungarvan.

Despite the treaty of Windsor, to which Henry the 11 had put his name to in 1175, he began to sign away other lands which still belonged to Gaelic Irish. To himself he reserved the cities of Cork and Limerick, but the McCarthy lands from Mount Brandon in Kerry to Youghal were given to Robert FitzStephen and Milo de Cogan while the O’Brien lands ‘kingdom of Limerick’ which embraced present day North Kerry, Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary was granted to Philip the Braose. Philip de Braose junior (fl. 1172), was an Anglo-Norman noble most noted for his participation in Henry II’s conquest of Ireland. He was one of the three captains of adventurers left in charge of Wexford at Henry’s departure in 1172.He was also given the City of Limerick (‘Limericenæ videlicet regnum’).

McCarthy retained only south-west Cork and O’Sullivan the Beara Peninsula and South Kerry.  Consequently Munster became one of the most French-Norman-Viking occupied lands outside of France. The Norman advance progressed steadily in the north, west and south. By 1250, within eighty years of the invasion – three quarters of the country had been overrun by the Normans. These shrewd Anglo Norman – Land-Grabbers cherry picked the best of the land in the four provinces of Ireland and left the native Irish with the hills, mountains, the bogs and rocky lands which was mainly in the western half of the island of Ireland.