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The Armour of Derricke’s Chieftain
The Irish chieftain pictured in John Derricke’s Image of Ireland (1581) wears a helmet and armour that have never been satisfactorily...
Wilde Irishe
Oct 6, 202221 min read
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Sciath and Starga: 16th Century Gaelic Irish Shields
Gaelic Irish shields in the 16th century seem to have been of two distinct varieties. The general word for shield, sciath, was originally...
Wilde Irishe
Feb 8, 20228 min read
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Irish Ring Pommel Sword: New Insight into Use
The 2014 discovery of a new example of a sixteenth century Irish ring pommel sword has provided fresh insights into this weapon.
Wilde Irishe
Aug 20, 202112 min read
2 comments
Donnell O’Hagan’s Company of Shot: 1593
This brief note focusses on details of the organisation, equipment, clothing and training of a typical company of ‘shott’ in the service...
Wilde Irishe
Mar 3, 202124 min read
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Wright’s Chieftains: A Tale of Two Paintings
Two of the most important visual documents of traditional Gaelic dress have been somewhat overlooked, their full value obscured by a...
Wilde Irishe
Feb 2, 202130 min read
3 comments
A Fight With O'Rourke: 1589
This account of the government’s final engagement with Brian na Múrtha O’Rourke provides a vivid picture of the nature of Elizabethan...
Wilde Irishe
Dec 12, 202010 min read
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Irish Tower Houses: a Spotter’s Guide
Rough men-at-arms, cross-gartered to the knees
Or shod in iron, climbed the narrow stairs
Wilde Irishe
Sep 16, 202012 min read
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O’Donnell’s Kern—A Sixteenth-Century Campfire Tale
So there you have the Circuit of Manannán mac Lir of the tuatha dé danann, who used to be going round Ireland.
Wilde Irishe
Aug 24, 202012 min read
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Sword Dance of the Irish Kern
The kern in Elizabethan Ireland were said to have a sword dance peculiar to them. What can we learn of its nature?
Wilde Irishe
Apr 23, 20208 min read
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Horseboys: Irish Lackeys, Irish Footmanship—Part 2
“A Teague! A Teague! Well run, Irish!”
Wilde Irishe
Mar 28, 20207 min read
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Horseboys: Irish Lackeys, Irish Footmanship
for so they call their horse-keepers be they never so old knaves
Wilde Irishe
Mar 23, 20204 min read
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A Rising-Out of MacSweeneys armed “According to the Usage of the Country.”
And it was then that a levy of galloglasses was made on Clann Suibhne, and this is how the levy was made.
Wilde Irishe
Feb 14, 20206 min read
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Galloglass vs. Redshank: Don’t Fight Over Spilt Milk.
"Fight it out in the fair fields."
Wilde Irishe
Feb 7, 20203 min read
1 comment
A John Derricke Drawing: Hidden in Plain Sight?
It has been regretted that we do not have Derricke’s presumed original drawings, as they would have greater immediacy.
Wilde Irishe
Jan 24, 20204 min read
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Beware the Cat: Part 2
Whereupon the kern took his dart, flung it and struck her through.
Wilde Irishe
Jan 10, 20204 min read
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Beware the Cat
Doubting lest, when she had eaten that, she would eat them too because they had no more for her.
Wilde Irishe
Jan 3, 20204 min read
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The MacGiollapadraig’s Lordship and ‘Grany ny Costegan, shot’
Like the Earl of Tyrone, Florence the third Baron of Upper Ossory updated his armed forces, and by 1601 his men had been converted to shot a
Wilde Irishe
Dec 5, 20193 min read
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