Video Description

Ireland’s history is a constant struggle for land and power. First, the Gaelic Celts fought among themselves for the title of High King; then the Scandinavians established the trading kingdom of Dublin and left behind legends of the “black pool” and their mercenary gall-óglaigh. When Anglo-Norman knights—Strongbow, FitzStephen, and their companions—landed in Ireland in the 12th century, the clan chiefs faced a new challenge. After the victories and defeats of Brian Boru, “Silken” Thomas FitzGerald, and other heroes, the island gradually came under the English crown: the Statutes of Kilkenny forbade the English from adopting local customs, and the policy of “surrender and re-grant” turned kings into landlords. Thus the old era ended—but it was here that the long fight for independence began, a struggle that would repeatedly remind the world that Celts, Vikings, and the English each, in their own way, shaped the fate of the Emerald Isle.