The Fields Of Athenry: A Journey Through Irish HistoryIn The Fields of Athenry , James Charles Roy leads us through the Irish past and present with the central theme of his own personal experience with the renovation of a run-down castle -- really a crumbled tower -- that he purchased more than thirty years ago. Moyode Castle, located near the County Galway market town of Athenry, was built in the sixteenth century by the Dolphins, an Irish-speaking family directly descended from French-speaking Norman adventurers who had invaded Ireland four centuries earlier. This old tower house and the rich agricultural lands it guards has witnessed every strand of Irish history, from the heroic exploits of Celtic warriors long celebrated by Yeats and Lady Gregory, through the Easter Rising of 1916 when IRA insurgents used the building as a lookout. It stands today as a powerful, timeless symbol of the tumultuous ebb and flow of fortune, both good and bad, that characterizes Irish history.Roy weaves his personal story of the purchase and renovation of Moyode into a wide ranging historical conversation, leading us to a topic of real interest to Ireland today and our sense of history more broadly: the historical nostalgia we attach to Ireland and the fact that our romantic image flies directly in the face of development and boom times in the "Celtic Tiger" of the twenty-first century. Few know, for example, that today Ireland produces and ships more software abroad than any other country in the world with the exception of the United States, though we all know the story of Angela's Ashes. With this theme in mind, Roy leads us to question what attracts us -- or perhaps more aptly him -- to the rubble of a castle from Irish days long past. |
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Page 97
... Gaelic women - wives to de Burgo warriors - berated their men to accept Irish ways of succession that , albeit bloody and treacherous , at least kept control on their own level . If a lord died childless or with a minor heir or daughter ...
... Gaelic women - wives to de Burgo warriors - berated their men to accept Irish ways of succession that , albeit bloody and treacherous , at least kept control on their own level . If a lord died childless or with a minor heir or daughter ...
Page 152
... Gaelic order , if not Gaelic life , and had a profound impact on the great plain of Clanricard . For Ulick , third earl , these were years of peril and uncertainty . Spies of the Crown despaired of his loyalty , reporting that friars ...
... Gaelic order , if not Gaelic life , and had a profound impact on the great plain of Clanricard . For Ulick , third earl , these were years of peril and uncertainty . Spies of the Crown despaired of his loyalty , reporting that friars ...
Page 222
... Gaelic character of its profound , spirited , wayward , and often playful intellectual curiosity , that drive and tenacity of will that at one time had spiritually influenced many of the more substantial and populous societies of ...
... Gaelic character of its profound , spirited , wayward , and often playful intellectual curiosity , that drive and tenacity of will that at one time had spiritually influenced many of the more substantial and populous societies of ...
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Common terms and phrases
Abbey Anglo-Norman army Athenry Aughrim barons battle Bermingham Burgh Burton Calendar State Papers Carew Catholic cattle Celtic Celts century Charles chieftains Church Connaught Conquest countryside County Galway Crown death Dermot Dermot MacMurrough Dolphins Dublin Dunkellin earl of Clanricard earl's Elizabethan England English farm farmers father field friends Gaelic gallowglasses Galway City Harty Hayes-McCoy horse hunt Irish history Irish Sword James JGAHS John JRSAI Kildare king king's Lady Gregory land later Liam Mellows lived London look lord deputy Loughrea Medieval Ireland motte motte and bailey Moyode Moyode Castle Moyode House never night Norman O'Connor O'Donnell O'Neill Ormond Persse Portumna Press Protestant Raftery Rathgorgin rebellion Richard Robert Roxborough royal ruin stone Strafford Strongbow sword Thomas Uniacke tion told took tower town Tudors Turoe Stone Ulick Ulster usual wall warrior Wentworth William de Burgo William the Conqueror wrote