supporting a dense network of villages and towns and
forming the basis for high volumes of exports from
Munster’s ports.
The tide of English expansion was reversed spec-
tacularly in southwestern Munster in 1261 when
Fingín Mac Carthaig, king of Desmond, won a deci-
sive victory at the Battle of Callan and followed it up
by destroying a string of English castles as far east as
the outskirts of Kinsale. English expansion into
Thomond continued until 1317 when the local English
magnate, Richard de Clare, was killed and his forces
routed by the Ua Briain at the Battle of Dysert O’Dea.
The English colonies in Munster contracted over
the course of the fourteenth century. The Bruce inva-
sion helped to undermine English royal authority in
distant regions in Ireland and facilitated the emergence
of the “rebel English,” lawless men who preyed on
lesser folk. Climatic change, exacerbated by the Black
Death later in the century, resulted in a massive reduc-
tion in the agricultural surpluses that had underpinned
the manorial system in Munster. The Irish warlords
were more effective in facing the colonists in war. As
the colony contracted, power became more concen-
trated in the hands of Anglo-Irish magnates; particu-
larly the Fitzgerald earls of Desmond, whose estates
covered a discontinuous tract from north Kerry,
through Limerick, to Imokilly in east Cork and Decies
in County Waterford, and the Butler earls of Ormond
whose estates formed a more consolidated block in
Counties Tipperary and Kilkenny. In Cork there was
a series of lesser lordships held by the Barretts, Barrys,
and Roches and the Condons, Cogans, and Courceys,
all of them subject to some degree of influence by the
earl of Desmond, and most of them under pressure
from the MacCarthys of Muskerry or the MacDonogh
MacCarthys of Duhallow.
By the end of the Middle Ages, an uneasy equilibrium
had been achieved between the various lordships in
Munster. The province was ruled over by lords of Gaelic
Irish or Anglo-Irish descent, with very little interference
from England. English influences persisted, especially
in the towns and in their more heavily colonized hinter-
lands. The Anglo-Irish lords of Munster generally
observed the English custom of primogeniture and took
care to secure recognition from the English crown for
their titles. Yet, the Irish language, culture, and laws
prevailed over most of Munster, even in Ormond. The
extent of gaelicization was to pose a challenge to Tudor
schemes for reform in the sixteenth century.
HENRYA. JEFFERIES
References and Further Reading
Byrne, Francis J. Irish Kings and High-Kings. London: Batsford,
1973.
Down, Kevin. “Colonial Economy and Society in the High
Middle Ages.” In A New History of Ireland, edited by A.
Cosgrove, ii. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Nicholls, Kenneth W. Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Later
Middle Ages. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1972.
Nicholls, Kenneth W. “The Development of Lordship in County
Cork.” In Cork: History and Society, edited by P. O’Flanagan
and C. G. Buttimer. Dublin: Geography Publications, 1993.
Ó Corráin, Donnchadh. Ireland before the Normans. Dublin:
Gill & Macmillan, 1972.
See alsoBrian Boru; Cork; Dál Cais; Eóganachta;
Érainn; Fitzgeralds of Desmond; Limerick; Mac
Carthaig, Cormac; Uí Briain; WaterfordMUSIC
Ireland’s achievement in music has been noted by
admirers as early as the twelfth-century chronicler
Giraldus Cambrensis. Acclaiming little else in his
twelfth-century first-hand account, Giraldus extols the
range and talent of Irish musicians, commenting spe-
cifically on their distinctive melodies, harmonies, and
composition. Renowned for both its vocal and instru-
mental skills, medieval Ireland boasts a rich history in
music.
Stringed instruments dominate any study of music
in medieval Ireland. The harp is Ireland’s best-known
instrument and one of its most enduring national
symbols. The instrument appears in several different
shapes and forms over the medieval period, suggest-
ing an evolution from earlier four-sided instruments
to the well-known triangular harp of today. While
“harp” remains the standard interpretation of all
stringed instruments mentioned in the sources, thereIrish musician playing the harp from Topographia Hibernica.
© The British Library.MUNSTER