#OTD in 1170 – Richard de Clare (Strongbow) marries Aoife Ní MacMurrough and sets a precedent for Norman rule in Ireland.

29/08/2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

Aoife Ní MacMurrough, also known by later historians as Eva of Leinster, was a noble, princess of Leinster and countess of Pembroke. She was the daughter of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster and his second wife, Mor O’Toole, a relation of St Lawrence O’Toole. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland that her father had requested, she married […]

#OTD in Irish History | 29 August:

29/08/2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

1170 – Richard de Clare (Strongbow) marries Aoife Ní MacMurrough and sets a precedent for Norman rule in Ireland. 1729 – Birth of David La Touche, banking magnate and MP. 1798 – Cornwallis reaches Tuam, Co Galway. 1803 – Samuel Neilson, one of the founder members of the Society of United Irishmen and the founder […]

#OTD in Irish History | 25 August:

25/08/2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

1645 – Edward Worcester, Earl of Glamorgan; aristocrat and inventor, is sent to Ireland to raise troops for the king, and makes two secret treaties with the confederates on this date and on 20 December. 1764 – Birth of James Hope. He was a United Irishmen leader who fought in the 1798 and 1803 rebellions […]

#OTD in 1170 – Richard de Clare (Strongbow), a henchman of Henry II, arrives in Waterford at the behest of Dermot McMurrough, an event described in the Annals of Ulster as “the beginning of the woes of Ireland”.

23/08/2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Richard, the son of Gilbert de Clare, was born in about 1130. His mother was Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert de Beaumont, the Earl of Leicester. In 1138 King Stephen created Gilbert the first Earl of Pembroke. On the death of his father in 1148, Richard became the 2nd Earl of Pembroke. In 1169, Dermot MacMurrough, the […]

#OTD in 1318 – Richard de Clare, Lord of Thomond, a descendant of Strongbow, is killed while commanding his forces at the Battle of Dysert O’Dea.

09/05/2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

The Normans were very unsuccessful in trying to establish themselves in Clare. They had but one small section in Bunratty guarded by a strong Castle of the same name. In 1318 Richard DeClare occupied the Castle of Bunratty. In May of that year he was joined by some Irish traitors and they proceeded with a […]