EXPLANATIONS

We can put forward two explanations for this. The first would be to stress the complex but essentially political, as opposed to military, events which led to the replacement of the Irish kingdoms of Cork and Limerick by the various English lordships. Eastern Munster was an area securely controlled by none of the major kings before 1170, but disputed by all. It clear that there was no concerted campaign against the English by the kings of the three Irish kingdoms

Figure 42 Dromore, Co. Down: view of the motte and bailey from the south

Concerned: the Mac Carthaig of Desmond, the Ui Briain of Munster and the Ui Conchobair of Connacht. Kings of each of these families are to be found raiding each other, as often in alliance with English lords as against them. The occupation of the two kingdoms by the English followed the removal of strong kings of the neighbouring Irish: Ruadri Ua Conchobair’s retirement in 1183, Diarmait Mac Carthaig’s death in 1185, and Domnall Mor Ua Briain’s in 1194. Their successors were in no position to provide strong action. By the later part of King John’s reign, there were pro-English kings in place: Cathal Crobhderg Ua Conchobair in Connacht and Donough Ua Briain.

There is a strong case for regarding the establishment of the English lordships in eastern Munster as being accepted by the Irish kings whose power over the land was weak and disputed in any case. To an Ua Briain or a Mac Carthaig, faced with the potential military strength of the English king, the surrender of ambitions in Cork or Limerick seems to have been a price worth paying for secure tenure of their core lands of Thomond and Desmond. In these circumstances, the tenants of the new English lords may have felt so secure as not to feel the need for castles. This is the same period as that in which we saw, at the beginning of this chapter, the Justiciar making a major strategic effort along the southern borders of modern Ulster, with the establishment of the castle at Clones. In the years before 1216, he successfully established castles and royal organisation along the middle Shannon, with the help of Cathal Crobhdeg and Donough Ua Briain, but Clones castle was destroyed in 1213 by Aed Ua Neill of Cenel Eoghain in alliance with the men of Irish Oriel. Aed was the most powerful Irish king of the years after 1200, especially in alliance with the Irish of southern Ulster (in the modern sense). The English of Meath, Oriel and Ulster facing the power of the Cenel Eoghain and others needed border defences and other castles much more than the English of Munster.

An alternative explanation is to stress the large-scale and speculative nature of the grants of lordship in eastern Munster. Certainly King John felt able to play ducks and drakes with conflicting grants to William de Burgh, Philip of Worcester and William de Braose in the area. This might reflect a situation in which the lords had taken up positions in their lands themselves, as witnessed by their own castles, but not yet managed to settle many tenants on these lands. Castles did not proliferate because there were few or no tenants of the knightly class established to build them. What it reminds us is how little we know of the processes of the details of the establishing of the lordships of Munster in particular and of the rest of Ireland as well. This second explanation of the the absence of Munster mottes might suggest that the tenants did not erect them because they were no longer in fashion.