The Invasion of Edward Bruce and the Gaelic Revival (Notes)

[1] This and the following Scottish quotations are taken from Barbour’s Bruce, a poem which deals, among the other exploits of the Bruce family, with the expedition of Edward Bruce to Ireland.

[2] Louth Archæological Journal, i, 77 seq. This tract is called “The Battle of the Fochart of S. Bridget,” ed. H. Morris.

[3] Miss Olive Armstrong, in her Edward Bruce’s Invasion of Ireland (1923), summarizes the arguments for a late date in her note on p. 113.

[4] Barbour calls the place “Wokingis Fyrth,” which was probably Larne; Pembridge calls it “Clondonne” and Grace’s Annals “Glondonne” or Glendun; these are all in Co. Antrim. The course of events and the names of the associates of Bruce also differ in the different authorities.

[5] Louth Archæological Journal, loc. cit.

[6] Bain, Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, iii, No. 469.

[7] Ibid., iii, No. 488.

[8] The numbers that fought are very variously estimated, from 5800 to 8274 Scots being stated to have fallen. Bruce seems to have had only a small Scottish army, with a very large following of Irish, who would not fight.

[9] We may hope that this final disaster is, like the eating of the eight Scots at Carrickfergus, added for rhetorical effect.

[10] Tribes and Customs of the Hy-Many, ed. J. O’Donovan (Irish Archæological Society, 1843), pp. 136-139.

[11] Annals of Clonmacnois, 1326.

[12] Their downfall occurred before the death of Edward Bruce. See p. 205.

[13] Lord Deputy to Walsingham, 1589.

[14] The ‘Ua’ or ‘O’ was never adopted by the Normans; it remained as the patronymic of the pure Gaelic families.

[15] Book of Howth, in Carew, Miscellany, p. 23.

[16] See the Book of Howth, op. cit., pp. 181-186, for a detailed and lively account of this battle.

[17] Annals of Loch Cé, 1315, 1328.

[18] Dugald MacFirbis, Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, ed. J. O’Donovan (1844), pp. 335-339.

[19] Annals of Clonmacnois, 1351.

[20] See letter to Pope Innocent VIII, in Dutton, Statistical Survey of County Galway (1824), Appendix, p. 6.

[21] Roderick O’Flaherty, Iar-Connacht, ed. J. Hardiman (1846), pp. 16-17.

[22] Carew, Miscellany, pp. 470-471; and cf. p. 474, apparently taken from the Waterford Book.

[23] For statutes regarding the march-lands and absentees see the Acts of 25 Edw. I (1297), 3 Edw. II (1310), 1 Hen. IV (1399), in Berry, Statutes and Ordinances, i, 199, 273, 500.

[24] Gilbert, Viceroys of Ireland, p. 233.

[25] Ibid., pp. 216, 229, 244, etc.