User:Mrchris/History of County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny lies within the south-east province of medieval Ireland, the area of the rivers Suir, Nore and Barrow containing a high percentage of towns that were founded by Norman colonists and their descendants.

The Anglo-Norman rule was established with castles like Kilkenny Castle. Prominent provincial or county centres with walled towns and chartered cities and boroughs, like Kilkenny, began to develop. Bradley (1985) suggested some 56 major medieval Irish towns such as Callan, Gowran, Kilkenny and Thomastown. A neat measure of the successful towns of the early 13th century is the extent of the mission of the mendicant friars. Only Kilkenny had early friaries

A network of smaller towns were established by the new landowners, thes include the intermediate market towns and centres, often at nodal points on road systems, and typically surviving in some form until the present day like Knocktopher and Kells. Many of these were Norman foundations on sub-infeudated land, brought into existence by a lordly grant of a market or borough status.

The foundation of towns was likely to belong to the primary phase of feudal division, and was economically necessary to concentrate the profits within the landholding (Empey 1990).

In County Kilkenny, the earl’s demesne lands included Kilkenny and Callan. Thomas fitz Anthony established Thomastown in the cantred of Ogenty. Griffin fitz William probably established Newtown in the cantred of Knocktopher.

Neolithic
Evidence of Neolithic settlement can be found throughout the county. There are great burial mounds including the portal tombs and dolmens at Owning, Harristown and Borrismore. There are passage graves at Clomantagh Hill and Knockroe. There were non-megalithe single-grave burial tombs, Linkardstown-type Cists, excavated at Jerpoint West. These are late Neolithic and before the single-grave rite of the Bronze Age.

A Neolithic house was identified in Granny near Waterford, making it the oldest house in County Kilkenny. The square house consisted of slot-trenches, internal floor surfaces, a hearth and wooden posts at each corner, one of the post-holes was radiocarbon-dated to 3997-3728 BC. A new form of early Neolithic pottery with a lip around the inside of the rim were found. This Granny pottery is similar to pottery found in the south-east of England.

Kingdom of Osraige


Tribes of Ireland according to Ptolemy's Geographia.

The Kingdom of Osraige was one of the ancient Kingdoms of Ireland. The Kings of Osraige, the Mac Giolla Phádraig family, reigned over Osraige and Cill Chainnigh was their stronghold. The Kingdom of Ossory existed from at least the 2nd century until the 13th century A.D. The current ecclesiastical dioceses of that area is still known as Ossory. The medieval Diocese of Ossory and was established in the year 549 AD, and its territory corresponded to the medieval Kingdom of Ossory. In historic times Kilkenny replaced Aghaboe as the chief church in Osraige.

The kingdom was bounded by two of the Three Sisters the rivers Barrow and Suir and the northern limit was, generally, the Slieve Bloom Mountains. The Osraige &mdash;their name means people of the Deer&mdash; inhabited much of modern County Kilkenny and parts of neighbouring County Laois. To the west and south, Osraige was bounded by the River Suir, to the east the watershed of the River Barrow marked the boundary with Leinster, and to the north it extended into and beyond the Slieve Bloom Mountains. The River Nore ran through the Kingdom.

Osraige formed the easternmost part of the kingdom and province of Munster until the middle of the 9th century, after which it was attached to Leinster. Osraige was largely a buffer state between Leinster and Munster. Its most significant neighbours were the Loígsi, Uí Cheinnselaig and Uí Baircche of Leinster to the north and east and the Déisi Muman, Eóganacht Chaisil and Éile of Munster to the south and west.

The name Osraige is said to be from the Usdaie, a celtic tribe that Ptolemy's map of Ireland places in roughly the same area that Osraige would later occupy. The territory indicated by Ptolemy probably included the major late Iron Age hill-fort at Freestone Hill which produced some Roman finds. Also the interesting burial at Stonyford which is of typical Roman type and probably dates to the 1st century AD. The Osraighe themselves claimed to be descended from the Érainn people. Others propose that the Ivernic groups included the Osraige of the Kingdom of Osraige/Ossory.

The Brigantes were the only Celtic tribe to have a presence in both England and Ireland, in the latter of which they could be found around Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford.



Pope Adrian IV gave Norman King Henry II of England permission to claim Ireland 1154. The Cisternians came to Jerpoint and Kilkenny around 1155/60. Jerpoint Abbey is founded by Donal MacGiollaPhadruig, King of Ossory 1158. In 1168 Dermot MacMurrough the King of Leinster was driven out of his kingdom by Rory O'Connor the High King of Ireland with the help of Tiernan O'Rourke. MacMurrough looked for help from Henry II and got help from a Cambro-Norman lord notable Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, known to history as Strongbow. MacMurrough secured the services of Richard, promising him the hand of his daughter Aoife of Leinster and the succession to Leinster. Richard and other Marcher barons and knights by King Henry assembled an army. The army, under Raymond le Gros, took Wexford, Waterford and Dublin in 1169 and 1170, and Strongbow joined them in August 1170. The day after the capture of Waterford, he married MacMorrough's daughter, Aoife.

The Lordship of Ireland was a lordship created in the wake of the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169—71. Kilkenny formed part of the lordship of Leinster. Strongbow became Lord of Leinster in 1171.

Following the Norman invasion, the island of Ireland was divided into thirty-two counties. The Republic of Ireland today is made up of twenty-six of the traditional thirty-two counties with the other six forming Northern Ireland. Two former counties in the Republic have been subdivided, giving a modern total of twenty-nine counties for administrative purposes rather than twenty-six.

Early Christian
Kilkenny is the anglicised version of the Irish Cill Chainnigh, meaning Canice's Church. This relates to a church built in honour of St. Canice on the hill now containing St. Canice's Cathedral and round tower. This seems to be the first major settlement. The early Christian origin of the round tower suggests an early ecclesiastical foundation at Kilkenny. Cill Chainnigh was a major monastic centre from at least the eighth century.

From the mid 9th century through to the 10th and 11th centuries, Cerball mac Dúnlainge (King of Osraige) and his successors, the Mac Gilla Pátraics, were resident in Kilkenny. They consolidated their power to become Kings of Leinster and Kilkenny was already the most important inland town in south-east Ireland by the time the Anglo-Normans arrived.

Ceall-Cainnigh was for the most part burned.

The Annals of the Four Masters recorded Kilkenny in 1085. Prior to this time the early 6th century territory was known as Osraighe, referring to the whole district or the capital. The Four Masters entry was the first instance where the capital was called Ceall-Cainnigh (modernized Kilkenny). Cill Chainnigh was a major monastic centre from at least the eighth century, however there is no mention of Cill Chainnigh in the lives of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Ciarán of Saighir or any of the early annals of Ireland suggesting that Cill Chainnigh was not of ancient civil importance. The seat of diocese of Kingdom of Osraige was moved from Aghaboe to Cill Chainnigh.