From pitched battles to guerrilla warfare, the villages north of Kells have seen their fair share of strife over the centuries. Aside from those mentioned in folklore, one of the earliest of these battles took place at Billywood and had the kingship of the Southern Uí Néill at stake. Warfare in Early Medieval Ireland generally consisted of localised raids and skirmishes, so most warriors wore very little armour and carried only a spear and buckler (small round) shield.¹ This was likely the case too when both armies met outside Moynalty.

When the Vikings arrived in the late 8th century, with their battle axes and clad in chainmail, they at first gained the upper hand against these lightly-armed Irish armies. Irish kings responded by developing fleets of their own to compete with the Vikings at sea,² and during the 8th and 9th centuries many of the smaller tuathas were annexed into larger over-kingdoms.³ From the 9th century onwards the idea of an actual ‘high kingship’, where the whole island could be conquered, became a realistic goal for many of the leading dynasties.

The arrival of the Normans in the 12th century brought new challenges: armoured cavalry and knights. At this time the bulk of Irish armies consisted of ‘Kerns’, who were designed for speed and mobility and preferred to use the terrain to their advantage instead of engaging in pitched battles.

To help with this, the use of Gaelic speaking Scottish ‘Gallowglass’ became popular and levelled the playing field to some extent. At the Battle of Kells in 1315, de Bruce’s ‘Redshanks’ (Scottish Highlanders quite similar to Gallowglass) were vital in helping defeat the Normans and showed the advantage of hiring units of such mercenaries. Gallowglass went on to form the bulk of the heavy infantry in Irish armies up to the early 17th century.⁴

When the use of firearms reached Ireland they were used to great effect. During the 9 Years War, Hugh O’Neill armed his troops with muskets and successfully adopted military tactics being used on the European continent.⁵ This was followed up by another rebellion in 1641 in which the Hiberno-Normans provided the rebels with thousands of arms.⁶

Less than 50 years later, the majority of the population was forbidden to own a weapon under the Penal Laws, which severely impacted successive Irish uprisings. At Coolnahinch in 1793, a much smaller but armed band of British soldiers easily dispersed the rebels on the hill. Similarly, in Bailieborough in 1798 the rebels who were armed only with pikes were routed. Pike warfare was extremely effective at disrupting cavalry charges but required discipline and cover fire to work effectively. With no muskets and facing into a cannon fire it resulted in one of the highest casualty rates from a single battle in the area.

Due to the rural and isolated nature of the Irish society, guerrilla warfare has been by far the most effective tactic practiced by Irish soldiers over the years. This came to the fore once again in Moynalty during the War of Independence.

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References

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1. T. M. Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland (Cambridge, 2004), p. 69
2. Peter & Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland (London, 1991), p. 50
3. Edel Bhreatnach, Ireland in the Medieval World AD400-1000 (Dublin, 2014), p. 73
4. Edmund Curtis, A history of medieval Ireland from 1086 to 1513 (Abingdon, 2012), p. 147
5. Jeremy Black, The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: Renaissance to Revolution 1492-1792, Vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1996), p. 55
6. Jane H. Ohlmeyer, Ireland from Independence to Occupation, 1641-1660, (Cambridge, 1995), p. 73