{"id":645074,"date":"2026-10-05T03:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645074\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T03:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:26:18","slug":"the-first-english-ireland-was-never-norman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645074\/","title":{"rendered":"The First English: Ireland was never Norman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Irish government announced last year that it intends to participate in The Year of the Normans \u2013 People of Europe<\/a> in 2027 \u2013 a year-long event that will celebrate and commemorate Norman culture and the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, how can the Irish government celebrate and commemorate Norman culture and England\u2019s first Norman king \u2013 when there were never Normans in Ireland?<\/p>\n

The term \u2018Norman\u2019 within an Irish context is, at best, historically inaccurate and, at worst, one of the greatest distortions in Irish history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to historians and primary sources, the \u2018Normans\u2019 in Ireland never self-identified as \u2018Norman\u2019. <\/p>\n

The \u2018Normans\u2019 in Ireland self-identified as \u2018English\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an Irish Times article<\/a> from last year, Professor Se\u00e1n Duffy of Trinity College stated: \u2018The problem with painting everyone with the \u201cNorman\u201d brush is that many of those who began arriving in Ireland in the late 1160s had probably never set foot in Normandy\u2019. Duffy later added: \u2018The reality is that \u2013 whatever their direct or indirect links to the actual Normans of Normandy \u2013 most of those who settled in Ireland after 1169 came either from England or Anglo-Norman settlements in Wales\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duffy emphasised that: \u2018Almost without exception \u2013 whenever any of the so-called Normans who came to Ireland refer to themselves, they call themselves not Norman but English\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other historians quoted in this article, such as Brendan Smith, professor of medieval history at the University of Bristol, and Sparky Booker, assistant professor in medieval Irish history at Trinity College Dublin, also identified the \u2018Normans\u2019 in Ireland as \u2018English\u2019.<\/p>\n

Two key primary sources that support the identification of the \u2018Normans\u2019 as \u2018English\u2019 are Gerald of Wales\u2019s Expugnatio Hibernica (c. 1189), which repeatedly identifies the invaders as Angli (\u2018English\u2019) and records Maurice FitzGerald as saying, \u2018we are English to the Irish\u2019, and the Old French poem The Song of Dermot and the Earl (c. 1230), which also repeatedly uses the term Engleis (\u2018English\u2019).<\/p>\n

The blanket use of the term \u2018Norman\u2019 in Ireland only emerged in the 19th century, when the Norman misnomer was applied retrospectively. For centuries, the \u2018Normans\u2019 in Ireland were commonly described as \u2018English\u2019. Duffy attributes this shift from \u2018English\u2019 to \u2018Norman\u2019 to two reasons: \u2018One is the extraordinary popularity of Sir Walter Scott\u2019s novel Ivanhoe (1819) which practically invented the myth of the Normans and made the Normans \u201csexy\u201d. The second reason is less benign and had to do with Anglo-Irish relations\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rather than being painted with the broadest brush of \u2018Norman\u2019, as Duffy highlighted, or with the broad, yet more accurate brushes of \u2018Anglo-Norman\u2019 and \u2018Cambro-Norman\u2019, the first invading \u2018Normans\u2019 who self-identified as \u2018English\u2019 in Ireland should be historically called \u2018The First English\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Norman descent of many of the First English, whose family origins can be traced to Normandy, is undeniable. However, it is equally undeniable that they self-identified as \u2018English\u2019 and that many were several generations removed from Normandy. The Norman descent of the First English presents only part of their history. The fact that they self-identified as \u2018English\u2019 rather than \u2018Norman\u2019 represents the other crucial part.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four reasons form the cornerstone of the term \u2018The First English\u2019:<\/p>\n

The First English in Ireland did not self-identify as Norman, Anglo-Norman, or Cambro-Norman \u2013 they self-identified as \u2018English\u2019.
\n The First English in Ireland pledged their political allegiance and loyalty to the English crown and had cultural and familial ties to England.
\n The First English in Ireland introduced and enforced English common law and the English feudal system in Ireland. Many were likely bilingual in French and English, while their armies included English-speaking soldiers who brought the English language and English customs to Ireland.\u00a0
\n Many of the First English in Ireland intermarried with elite members of Gaelic dynasties and, over time, Gaelicised, while their descendants were later known as the \u2018English of Ireland\u2019 and the \u2018Old English\u2019.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018The First English\u2019 is not ahistorical. It works within the historical framework, both linguistically and culturally, reflecting how their self-identity as \u2018English\u2019 developed in Ireland. The First English left a monumental mark when they invaded Ireland in 1169. By self-identifying as \u2018English\u2019, they forged a direct historical link to English presence in Ireland. In A New History of Ireland (2008), historian Christine Kinealy observes that 1169 began \u2018the long political entanglement between Ireland and England\u2019.<\/p>\n

The First English invasion of Ireland, with the likes of Strongbow (a distant cousin of the Conqueror), fanned the flames that would forge the second linked invasion: the invasion of Ireland in 1171 by the Conqueror\u2019s great-grandson, Henry II, king of England. Henry II\u2019s invasion followed the English pope Adrian IV\u2019s Laudabiliter (c. 1155), which appears to have authorised Henry II\u2019s invasion of Ireland.<\/p>\n

In order for the Irish government to celebrate and commemorate \u2018Norman\u2019 culture in Ireland during The Year of the Normans \u2013 People of Europe in 2027, there must have been \u2018Normans\u2019 in Ireland, but as Smith remarked, \u2018Not a Norman in sight in Ireland in 1169\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three questions for Irish historians to reflect on:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should we continue calling a nearly 900-year-old \u2018English\u2019 spade a \u2018Norman\u2019 spade?\u00a0
\n Can we point out that an older part of the \u2018English\u2019 spade was once partly \u2018Norman\u2019 while still respecting the \u2018English\u2019 spade?
\n If we respect how people identify themselves today, should we not also respect how they identified themselves in the past \u2013 and call a spade a spade? <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00c9amon \u00d3 Caoineach\u00e1n\u00a0is a poet, writer and historian from Bundoran, Co Donegal. He is a PhD postgraduate in Arts at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick<\/p>\n

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