Battle of Dunboe
Who Fought
Alliance of John de Courcy's Norman forces and the Ulaid
the Ó Doibhilin of the Northern Uí Néill
History & Significance
The Earldom of Ulster was an Anglo-Norman lordship in north-eastern Ireland during the Middle Ages, ruled by the Earls of Ulster and part of the Lordship of Ireland. The Norman knight John de Courcy invaded the Gaelic Irish kingdom of Ulaid in 1177 and conquered most of its territory over the following few years. In 1181 he was made earl palatine of Ulster by Henry II of England. The earldom was the most important Anglo-Norman lordship in the north of Ireland. It covered most of what are now the Ulster counties of Antrim and Down, and briefly extended west to Lough Foyle. Its capital was Carrickfergus Castle.
The Earldom of Ulster suffered heavily from the Bruce campaign in Ireland in the 1310s, from which it never recovered. By the 15th century the earldom was restricted to coastal enclaves in County Down and around Carrickfergus, and the title of Earl of Ulster passed to the Crown in 1461.
In 1175, after a period of fighting between the Normans and Irish, the Irish High King, Rory O'Conor sued for peace with King Henry II of England who agreed to a status quo allowing the Normans to consolidate their conquests in return for no more incursions into Gaelic territory. Henry's Norman vassals however remained restless. In 1176, John de Courcy came to Ireland and, around the start of 1177, went about carefully planning an invasion of Ulaid in eastern Ulster. Having acquired the approval of the royal governor in Dublin, de Courcy took 32 mailed horsemen and some 300-foot soldiers north into Meath, where he had obtained the right of passage through from its lord, de Lacy. He then met up with Irish allies who helped provide men and information for the invasion. De Courcy's force then advanced beyond the northern extent of Norman control and into Ulaid, reaching the petty-kingdom of Lecale having only set out from Dublin four days before. Until this, Ulaid had been untouched by "English" forces.
De Courcy's force advanced on Downpatrick, the chief seat of the Dál Fiatach dynasty who then ruled Ulaid. Despite the small size of his force, de Courcy's attack caught the Ulaid by surprise forcing the over-king of Ulaid, Rory MacDonleavy (Ruaidrí Mac Duinn Sléibe) to flee. The papal legate, Cardinal Vivian, had been on a visit to Ulster when this attack happened and he called for the withdrawal of de Courcy's forces, however this went unheeded.
About a week later, MacDunleavy returned to Downpatrick with a great host drawn from across Ulaid, however despite being vastly outnumbered, de Courcy's forces won the day. MacDonleavy followed up this attack with an even greater force made up a coalition of Ulster's powers that included the king of the Cenél nEógain, Máel Sechnaill Mac Lochlainn, and the chief prelates in the province. Again the Normans emerged victorious, even capturing the clergy involved included the Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishop of Down, and many of their relics.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Dunboe lies on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Palaeogene, bedrock that formed in the Paleogene. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.
The defeat of the Ó Doibhilin incursion at Dunboe in 1182 stands as a telling moment in the Norman consolidation of Ulster, when de Courcy and the Ulaid fought side by side to repel raiders from the Northern Uí Néill, a coalition that would have seemed unthinkable only a few years earlier during the fierce resistance that had greeted de Courcy's initial invasion.
Frequently Asked Questions
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