the ground floor doors. In different regions of Ireland
(Co. Limerick or Co. Down) they have been shown to
be built to a common pattern, which contrasts with
normal castle building, wherein each castle empha-
sizes its originality. Their builders seem to be stressing
their adherence to a common group. Tower houses are
common in Scotland and the north of England as well
as Ireland, and seem to be associated with particular
groups of people and their lifestyles. The core of these
groups consisted of new gentry who prospered in the
conditions of the weakened power of the great lords
during the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The
Irish lords could associate themselves better with this
sort of castle than the more elaborate earlier designs,
and with them castle building first became a common
feature among the Gaelic Irish. Tower houses also
found favor among town merchants and rural priests.
Tower houses are the key feature for the detection and
understanding of settlement after the Black Death.
The final building of castles in Ireland came in the
late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. As well
as the continuing construction of tower houses, there
were a number of more or less fortified houses con-
structed, to which contemporaries gave the name of
castles, especially if they were combined with a
strong enclosure or bawn. They often provided a dis-
play of gables and corner towers, and the defensive
features of gun loops combined with elaborate mach-
icolations and fake battlements. The most interesting
set of these castles or strong houses is associated with
the Plantation of Ulster, where the castles or houses
(contemporaries use both words) use a variety of fea-
tures derived from the Irish, English, and Lowland
Scottish architectural repertoires. English planters
tended to build in English style and Scots in Scottish
style, but both used Irish workmen.
T. E. MCNEILL
References and Further Reading
McNeill, T. E. Castles in Ireland. Routledge, 1997.
Sweetman, P. D. The Medieval Castles of Ireland. Boydell, 1999.
See alsoArchitecture; Houses; Tower Houses;
Anglo-Norman Invasion; Archaeology; Dublin;
Feudalism; Kilkenny; Limerick; Manorialism;
Maynooth; Motte-and-Baileys; Pale, the;
Ringforts; Trim; Villages; Walled Towns;
Weapons and Weaponry
CATHAL MAC FINGUINE (d. 742)
Arguably the most powerful Munster king before
Brian Boru, Cathal belonged to the Eóganacht
Glennamnach dynasty. His father, Finguine (d. c.695)
son of Cú-cen-Máthair, is styled king of Munster in
his obit, but little is known of his reign. Cathal’s pre-
decessor as overking was Cormac (d. 713) grandson
of Máenach, of the Eóganachta of Cashel. The Munster
regnal list, in claiming a twenty-nine-year reign for
Cathal, implies that he succeeded his predecessor
immediately. However, there are indications that he
struggled to assert his authority at provincial level. In
715, Murchad son of Bran, the Uí Dúnlainge over king
of Leinster, marched on Cashel. Further doubt is cast
on the extent of Cathal’s sway during these early years
by the record of a rival, Eterscél son of Máel-umai of
Eóganacht Áine, who is styled king of Cashel in his
obit at 721. However, from that time onward, Cathal
emerges not only as a strong over king of Munster, but
as the dominant political force in Leth Moga, and as
a serious threat to the political order that the Uí Néill
dynasties strove to establish.
Cathal’s marriage to Caillech (d. 731) daughter of
Dúnchad Ard, a princeling of Uí Meicc Brócc, possibly
reflects an early initiative—even before his accession
to kingship—to forge alliances with dynasties to the
east of Cashel. In any event, he had a daughter
Tualaith, and a son (or, more likely, grandson) Artrí.
Later, he secured a judicious marriage pact with the
Uí Dúnlainge dynasty of Leinster, when his daughter
Tualaith wed Dúnchad son of Murchad. It is not clear
whether the marriage in question was arranged before
or after 721, but in that year, as is widely noticed in
the annals, Cathal joined forces with Murchad to plun-
der Brega (east Co. Meath and north Co. Dublin).
Following this, the (admittedly partisan) Annals of
Inisfallenmake the dramatic claim that the Uí Néill
king of Tara, Fergal son of Máel-dúin, submitted to
Cathal. An appended text, which reckons Cathal and
Brian Boru among five Munster kings who “ruled
Ireland,” resembles (eleventh- or twelfth-century) Ua
Briain propaganda and fuels misgivings about the sub-
mission claim.
Yet, it is clear that Cathal overshadowed Leth Moga.
Although it was the Uí Dúnlainge ruler, Murchad, and
his subkings who defeated and slew Fergal mac Máele-
dúin (722) in the crucial battle of Allen (Co. Kildare),
Cathal presumed to intervene as kingmaker in Leinster
following Murchad’s death in 727. He supported his
son-in-law, Dúnchad, against his brother, Fáelán. In
the ensuing battle at Knockaulin (Co. Kildare), Cathal
and his principal ally, the king of Osraige, were dis-
comfited, Dúnchad was fatally wounded, and Fáelán
seized the overkingship of Leinster. It is possible that
Fáelán’s subsequent marriage to Tualaith was intended
as an affront to Cathal (the new Leinster king appar-
ently opposed his designs), in which event her motives
might well be questioned. Alternatively, it may have
represented an attempt at settling differences. Either
way, the years that followed witnessed strenuousCATHAL MAC FINGUINE (d. 742)