- A view of the River Barrow
and Castle at Carlow
Carlow is one of the Irish
Counties favoured by having much of it’s Celtic past
largely undisturbed. The first settlers to reach Ireland
around 6000 BC left traces of their passing in the flint
weapons and implements found along the Barrow valley.
The legends of County Carlow began with the saga
of the destruction of
Dinn
Righ, an immense to hill fort
near Leighlinbridge. This fort was, according to
tradition destroyed by Labraidh Loinseach who is said to
have come from
Gaul with the first wave of Celtic
settlers about 300 BC Much earlier civilizations,
however, built the great Dolmen at Browne’s Hill and
other notable specimens within the county. Excavations at
the great stone fort of Rathgall just inside the Wicklow
border have brought to light the sophisticated technology
used by the Celts when making their bronze weapons.
Rathgall in Co Wicklow was a huge workshop where
spears, swords and shields were fashioned. An excavation
in 1969 of Rathgall turned out to be the first Later
Bronze Age Workshop located in Ireland and more than four
hundred fragments of clay moulds were found. A further
two or three hundred mould fragments were discovered away
from the main workshop showing the considerable extent of
the bronze-working area.
The coming of Christianity saw
the development of the great religious site of Saint
Mullins in a beautiful location on the River Barrow,
north of New Ross. To day St. Mullins is well worth a
visit to see the beautiful ruins of the once great
monastic settlement.
After the Norman Invasion a
great chieftain, Art McMurrough Kavanagh became King of
Leinster and the most feared fighting man in the country.
He attacked the Norman forces with such frequency that
King Richard II came to Ireland personally to resolve the
issue in 1394 with an estimated 10,000 men. A treaty was
agreed and King Richard II returned to England but he had
barely reached home when Art McMurrough Kavanagh struck
again and a series of battles culminated in a peace
engagement at Kellistown near Tullow where the King’s
cousin, Roger Mortimer was routed and slain. In
fury King Richard II returned to Ireland to defeat Art
McMurrough Kavanagh but he inflicted defeat after defeat
on the King’s forces. Richard’s war in
Ireland gave his enemies their chance. Bolingbroke
usurped England’s throne, the ill-fated Richard
returned to his death and Art McMurrough Kavanagh of
Borris won back his kingdom.
Carlow County remained a total
Gaelic enclave for centuries after this until after the
Cromwellian confiscation's of 1650, the later Penal Laws
and the banishment of Gaelic Society.
- Principal
Families of Co. Carlow
- 11th to 17th Century
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- BARONS: - Butler, Carew
- LORDS: - O'Cavanagh, O'Moore, O'Nolan, O'Ryan
- CHIEFTAINS:
- MacGorman, O'Cahill,
O'Doran
- NO TITLE DESIGNATED:
- Chevers, Coke, Eustace, Fitzgerald,
Grace, Lombard, MacMurrough, MacTeigue, O'Bolger,
O'Doyle, O'Doyne, O'Gorman, O'Kinsellagh, Sarsfield,
Strongbow, Tallon, Wall.
- This
Information provided by Alan O'Neill
aoneill@home.com
PART 3
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