Month: August 2023

The great chronicler Gerald of Wales described Robert FitzStephen as a man ‘who so often, both in Ireland and Wales, experienced with equanimity both the extremes of Fortune’s Wheel. Enduring everything that adversity can inflict, and enjoying everything that good fortune can bestow… He was a well-built and sturdy man, and handsome, a man who lived well, generous and of an open and cheerful disposition, but excessively addicted to wine and women’.

Gerald’s description of Robert FitzStephen seems to be entirely accurate. When the ousted King Diarmait Mac Murchada came to Wales, he found Robert imprisoned by his cousin Rhys ap Gruffydd. After having words with Rhys, Diarmait was able to get Robert released in 1167 under the condition that he joined the Cambro-Norman army Diarmait was building to retake Leinster.

According to Gerald of Wales, Robert FitzStephen was one of the first men to land in Wexford during the 1169 invasion. He led the vanguard of Diarmait’s Cambro-Norman auxiliaries to Ireland and captured Wexford town. King Diarmait rewarded him for his troubles by giving him some land around Wexford.

Robert built a defensive structure a few kilometres outside Wexford town in 1169, which is believed to be one of the first recorded Anglo-Norman defensive earthworks in Ireland.

Unfortunately, Robert’s luck turned, and the Irish besieged this defensive structure. Robert surrendered and was imprisoned in 1171. Once more, he found himself rotting in prison until his luck turned again. This time it was King Henry II of England that freed him, but his freedom came at a cost; he had to forfeit his lands in County Wexford.

Photo credit: Castles of Leinster: Ferrycarrig, Wexford
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Mike Searle – geograph.org.uk/p/3036325

Across certain parts of Wexford county, there was a now-extinct language that came here with the Normans.
A blend of French, Flemmish, Welsh and English settlers brought with them their native tongue and they became blended with the Viking and Irish settlers already here to create a unique dialect only found here in Wexford.
It was called Yola from the old English world for “old”
And though it is gone today, you can still see traces of it in hour we Wexfordians pronounce certain words. Tea for example becomes Tay, meat becomes Mate and all becomes Aul.
Kilmore Quay is known for the Yola Carols at Christmas, a strange haunting form of singing. You catch the odd word but not many!
There is one word that still remains strong though, the word Quare. This can be used to replace very as in “That’s a quare interesting story!”

In the year 2000 Eddie McGettigan dove off Tuskar Rock in County Wexford and swam over 60 km in freezing waters to Bishop’s Rock off the coast of Pembrokeshire. Eddie, aged 47, began his swim on Saturday. For twenty-nine hours he endured freezing temperatures until he reached Bishop’s Rock at 10 pm on Sunday. Exhausted and swollen from his colossal swim, Eddie was sadly informed that his achievement would not be recognised because he wore a wetsuit!

Unfortunately, the wearing of a wetsuit is prohibited by long-distance swimming authorities. So to become the first man to swim from Ireland to Wales across the Irish Sea, Eddie would have to redo the journey in normal swimming attire.

Photo Credit: : Tuskar Rock Lighthouse
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © David Dixon – geograph.org.uk/p/5317967

According to a famous legend, St. David was once instructed by an angel to return to Pembrokeshire to establish a monastery. He and his friends, including St. Aidan, celebrated their arrival home by building a large fire. Unfortunately for them, the fire was on the land of a feared Irish chieftain named Boia. He and his family lived in an old fort and were infamous for terrorising the surrounding lands. Boia was furious with this intrusion on his lands, and decided to lead his best warriors out to attack them. As they approached the holy men, a strange fever came over Boia and his men. They retreated to their fort but soon discovered all of their cattle and sheep were dead. Realising the power of the intruders, Boia returned to St. David and humbly requested mercy. St. David made peace with Boia and restored his animals to life, but only after Boia donated land for the new monastery.

Boia’s wife was furious when she heard this and tried to remove St. David herself. She sent her female slaves to bathe naked, play suggestive games and use lewd words in front of the monks. The monks begged St. David to leave lest they fall to temptation, but he refused and restored order by leading the monks in fasting and praying all night.

In a final act of defiance Boia’s wife sacrificed her step-daughter Dunawd to the pagan gods. When she realised the sacrifice had done nothing, she went mad and was never seen again. Boia decided to avenge his wife and daughter and prepared to attack St. David again, but before he could another Irish chieftain invaded his land and beheaded him. Devine retribution continued; fire rained down from the sky destroying Boia’s settlement. Over 1,400 years later, when archaeologists came to excavate at Clegyr Boia, they found the charred remains of huts and storehouses.

Ogham stones are an enigmatic reminder of ancient connections between Wales and Ireland.

Ogham is an early form of Irish writing that consists of a system of notches and horizontal or diagonal scores that were usually cut vertically onto the edge of a stone to represent the sounds of an early form of the Irish language. Ogham stones, found across Ireland and parts of western Britain, (predominantly Pembrokeshire), are inscribed with the names of prominent people, sometimes tribal affiliations or geographical areas. These inscriptions are the earliest recorded form of Irish and are a significant resource for historians, as well as linguists and archaeologists.

Though ogham stones originated in Ireland, a significant number of stones are recorded in Wales. The ogham stones of Wales are very similar but are often bilingual and depict writing in both ogham and Latin, whereas Latin is not used on any of the stones in Ireland. Also, ogham stones found in Wales, do not use certain additional letters of the ogham alphabet, which are commonly used on Irish ogham stones.

There are relatively few surviving ogham stones in our Ancient Connections project area of County Wexford, with just a handful of examples recorded at Portersgate, Cotts, Brandane, Saltee Island, Robbinstown and Killabeg.

The majority of Welsh ogham stones are located in Pembrokeshire. Four are located on the periphery of our project area; two at Brawdy and one each at Jordanston and St. Dogwells. Unfortunately, none of these stones were found in their original context. Most of them were being used as gate posts and were later moved again into churchyards.

It may seem unexpected that there are more ogham stones in Pembrokeshire than Wexford. This may be due to the fact that Wexford’s neighbouring county of Waterford – richly endowed with some 56 recorded ogham stones – was once the territory of the Déisi, an early medieval Irish tribe. In the 4th century AD, the Déisi settled in south west Wales, in the region then known as Dyfed (of which today’s Pembrokeshire forms the most westerly part), perhaps after having been invited there by the Romans to protect Wales from attack by other Irish tribes. Their sphere of influence (and perhaps their rule) eventually stretched all the way to Gwent in south east Wales.

But who were the Déisi? Their name might suggest the status of the tribe in Ireland, as it could signify a vassal or rent-paying tribe, a people who had no clear territory of their own. The reason for their status as a ‘landless’ people may be inferred from the quasi-historic tale known as The Expulsion of the Déisi. This text is thought to originate in the 8th century, though it only survives in manuscripts of a later date. This quasi-legendary account of their expulsion begins with Oengus, one of the princes of the Déisi, killing the son of Cormac, the High King of Ireland, in revenge for the rape of his niece. In the fight he also blinded Cormac in one eye, disqualifying him from the kingship. After a period of moving from region to region, the main part of the tribe eventually settled in Counties Tipperary and Waterford while a smaller branch — under the leadership of Echaid, a brother of Oengus — settled in Dyfed.

History is an ever shifting story and sifting history from the myths of these ancient times is almost impossible. We may never know why the Déisi settled in Dyfed, nor why, how or indeed if they ever left. Only the linear notches of Ogham and a few names and dedications in Latin are actually set in stone.