Pre-Norman settlement in Dublin

Medieval Resources -  Pre-Norman settlement in Dublin

Today the two townlands of Carrickmines Little and Carrickmines Great are located in the parish of Tully within the Dublin barony of Rathdown. Originally, though, Carrickmines belonged to the northern half of the Irish kingdom of Uí Briúin Chualann, a land that straddled the modern Dublin and Wicklow border.

A much disputed land: Carrickmines and the Dublin marches

An article by -  EMMETT O'BYRNE

In the middle ages, conquest and colonisation created frontiers between native and newcomer, stretching from Prussia to Palestine, across the Iberian peninsula and onto Ireland. Ireland's most important and also most neglected frontier was that formed by the Dublin marches-the lands that lay between the city of Dublin and the neighbouring Irish princes of Leinster. Here the frontier was an ethnic patchwork in which different racial groups lived side by side. So, naturally its politics were fluid and flexible. As in some other European lands, the newcomers showed over time that they could merge into native societies, adopting their language, customs, dress and laws. On the other hand, many native families were also able to trim their sails to the realities posed by the arrival of powerful newcomers. The lack of political uniformity in the Dublin marches ensured that this hybrid region was home to considerable ethnic diversity. Having said that, these lands were to remain a violent and a much-disputed interface between the rulers of Dublin and the Leinster Irish. The purpose of this article is to place Carrickmines in this context.

Today the two townlands of Carrickmines Little and Carrickmines Great are located in the parish of Tully within the Dublin barony of Rathdown. Originally, though, Carrickmines belonged to the northern half of the Irish kingdom of Uí Briúin Chualann, a land that straddled the modern Dublin and Wicklow border. The principal secular landowners of Uí Briúin Chualann were its kings, who were drawn from the Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc dynasty. Further, the Ostmen of the city kingdom of Dublin also had substantial lands in Uí Briúin Chualann. It was their arrival at Dublin in the ninth century, and presence thereafter, that forced the borders of Uí Briúin Chualann to contract dramatically. For by the eleventh century, Ostman colonists had settled throughout northeast Wicklow. The expansion of the Ostmen into Uí Briúin Chualann can be paralleled with the gradual extension of their lordship over Ua Cathasaig's kingdom of Saithne in north Dublin. In the twelfth century, the retreating Meic Gilla Mo-Cholmóc looked south to the neighbouring Irish kingdoms of Uí Garrchon and Uí Enechglais for compensation, forcibly establishing an overlordship over them.

The most prominent Ostmen of Uí Briúin Chualann and owners of Carrickmines were the Meic Torcaill (žorkellsons), kings of Dublin for most of the twelfth century. The extent of the Mac Torcaill lands has been defined as incorporating the parish of Tully and stretching to the Dargle river at Bray. In addition to this considerable swath of territory, the Meic Torcaill also seem to have held lands in Glencullen and near Powerscourt. After 1171 the above-mentioned lands extending from Tully parish to Bray were later referred in English documents as 'the lands of the son of Turchill'. Although the Meic Torcaill had successfully expanded into the region, their prize evolved into a marchland, an interface between Ostman Dublin and the rising power of the Uí Chennselaig overkingship of Leinster. The ethnic character of the marchland can be seen in the land holdings surrounding Carrickmines. This point is amply illustrated in the pre-1169 grants to the priory of Holy Trinity at Dublin by both Irish and Ostman nobles. Before his death in 1087 at the battle of Ráth Édair, the Uí Chennselaig prince Donnchad son of Domhnall Remar made a grant to Holy Trinity of Clonkeen. On the other hand, the Meic Torcaill proved themselves generous patrons of Holy Trinity. According to King John's charter to the priory in 1202, Sighrahre son of Thorkill had earlier granted land centred around Laughanstown, an area between Carrickmines and Loughlinstown.

The other great clerical beneficiary of secular largesse in the Carrickmines area before 1169 was the archbishop of Dublin. At the request of Archbishop Laurence O'Toole, Pope Alexander III on April 20 1179 took the archdiocese of Dublin into papal protection. From the place-names that made up the 1179 list of the archdiocese's lands, we can discern its landholdings in the Carrickmines area. Before 1169 the archdiocese owned considerable property in the parish of Kilgobbin, including the land of Balemochain. The latter seems to have extended over the modern townlands of Jamestown (parish of Kilgobbin) and Jamestown (parish of Tully), as well as taking in present day Ballyogan. And it is possible, though not certain, that the townlands of Carrickmines Little and Carrickmines Great at this time belonged to the greater Balemochain. Moreover, close study of the archdiocese's lands here reveals another layer of ethnic diversity amid the marchlands of south Dublin. It was only after July 1170 that the Ostmen granted Kilgobbin church to the archdiocese, but it is significant that Kilgobbin was formerly known as Tech na mBretnach, 'the house of the Welshmen'. That Kilgobbin was connected with the Welsh points to the presence of a Welsh community there before 1169. The existence of a Welsh community at Kilgobbin receives further support from place-name evidence in the locality. Just to the north of Carrickmines was Ballybrenan (Baile na mBretnach, the town of the Welsh, now Brenanstown), while medieval Carrigbrenan (now Monkstown) also points to distinctly Welsh influences.

As demonstrated by Edmund Curtis, Seán Duffy and Marie Therese Flanagan, there can be no doubt to the strength of the connection between Ostman city state of Dublin and the Welsh kingdoms before 1169. For example, the origins of Fitzrery family of Cloghran in north Dublin lay in the ruling dynasty of the north Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd. Indeed, a close study of the Fitzrerys reveals evidence that can be adduced to point towards a Welsh presence within the Ostman kingdom. Links between Ostmen and the ruling family of Gwynedd would seem to date back to the exile of Cynan ap Iago at Dublin after 1039. Cynan apparently married the deceased King Olaf's daughter Ragnailt and fathered with her the later king of Gwynedd, Gruffudd ap Cynan (d. 1137). Although disputed, it would appear Cynan received lands at Cloghran as part of Ragnailt's marriage portion. These lands were to remain in Welsh hands, and those administering them in the thirteenth century would seem to have been known sometimes as Machanan/Makanen, probably a corruption of mac Cynan or 'the son of Cynan'. Whether this patronymic indicates descent from Cynan ap Iago is debatable, but what is crystal clear is that the royal family of Gywnedd kept a close eye on these lands. In 1218 Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Gywnedd petitioned Henry III to pardon the fine due from his cousin Cynwrig, so that he could have entry into the Irish lands of the latter's father, Rhirid ab Owain Gwynedd. Remarkably, this cadet line was to hold their lands until the seventeenth century.

The strength of the pre-1169 Welsh connection in north Dublin with the Ostman kingdom is clear, but there is also evidence for Welsh communities living under the Ostmen in the southern Dublin marches. There does seem to be a case that the ancestors of the fourteenth-century Walshes and Howels of Carrickmines and Balybrenan ('the town of the Welsh') were long established there before the 1169-70 watershed. According to Valentine Hussey Walsh, the Walshes of Carrickmines were descended from a David Walsh who was created Baron Carrickmines in the 1170s. This statement seems unfounded on a number of grounds. Firstly, there is no such title, and secondly it could not have been made, as Carrickmines was church land. As for the patronymic of Walsh, it offers few clues as it simply denotes somebody of Welsh origin. Moreover, the usage of Walsh, Walshman or le Walleys to describe persons of Welsh ancestry tended to transcend all classes. In 1222 the high-born Rhirid, lord of Cloghran, was simply referred as Righerid le Walleys, meaning Righerid the Welshman. What is clear though is that the Walshes and Howels of Carrickmines were certainly very near kinsmen, if not forming part of the same extended lineage that dominated the Welsh community living on these lands.

The 1326 rental of the manor of Clonkeen shows Maurice Howel leasing Carrickmines and Balybrenan from Holy Trinity, while his kinsman Peter Howel was allowed to occupy nearby Ballymorthan. This rental further displays a community of Irish cottiers and farmers working the lands of Clonkeen, including some of the Okenan lineage. There seems a distinct possibility that these Okenans are not of Irish extraction but of Welsh. Their patronymic Okenan would seem to be a rendering of Ua Cynan or 'descendant of Cynan', which is similar to Machanan/Makanen that was used by the men of Gwynedd at Cloghran. In addition, the Howel patronymic clearly indicates descent from an ancestor who bore the Welsh forename Hywel. Hywel like Cynan was a traditional forename of the royal house of Gwynedd and there were at least two known Hywels of that dynasty, who had Irish mothers. The first Hywel was the son of Owain, king of Gwynedd (r.1137-70), who was killed during 1170 in a struggle to succeed his father. According to Meredith Hanmer, Hywel's brother Rhirid (d.1215), lord of Cloghran, was the father of the second Hywel, an obscure figure. There is only one later reference connecting the Hywels or Howels with the lands of the lords of Cloghran. On 10 March 1276, Philip Howel and a Geoffrey Harold-perhaps of the Kilgobbin family-sat on the jury at an inquisition to determine the lands at villa Walensis held from the archbishop of Dublin by Elias le Waleys (the Welshman). The land in question would seem to be Balibren (Baile na mBretnach, meaning town of the Welsh), now the modern townland of Walshestown located within the parish of Lusk in the barony of Balrothery East. This Balibren was undoubtedly the land of Righerid le Walleys (the Welshman) (d.1228), the lord of Cloghran who offered his homage to Henry III on 5 November 1222. Therefore the Howels and Walshes seem to have sprung from the Welsh community living in the Carrickmines/Kilgobbin area during the pre 1169 era. The nomenclature of this community also indicates connections with the contemporary descendants of the royal house of Gwynedd located at Cloghran, suggesting that Ostmen may have settled some followers of these princes around the Carrickmines/Kilgobbin area.

However, the major turning point for the Irish, Welsh and Ostmen of the Dublin marches and of Uí Briúin Chualann was the arrival of Diarmait MacMurrrough's English allies in 1169-70. The reactions of the Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc rulers of Uí Briúin Chualann and the Mac Torcaill kings of Dublin could not have been more different. This was largely due to their respective activities during the 1166 fall of MacMurrough. Then the Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc dynasty firstly proved fiercely opposed to the Leinster king. That changed after MacMurrough successfully encouraged O'Brennan to assassinate the rebellious king of Uí Briúin Chualann, allowing Domhnall Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc, MacMurrough's son-in-law, to take its kingship. On the other hand, the Meic Torcaill were long time enemies of MacMurrough. After the murder of the king of Uí Briúin Chualann, they joined High-King Ruaidrí O'Connor to force the Leinster king into exile. In September 1170 MacMurrough had his revenge, seizing Dublin from its king, Ascall Mac Torcaill. The end of Mac Torcaill kings of Dublin finally came in July 1171, culminating in their defeat by the English and Domhnall Mac Gilla Mo-Cholmóc and the later decapitation of Ascall in his own assembly hall.