Building Identity: An archaeology of Gaelic-Irish castles
Andrew Tierney
Awarded 2006
Supervisor: Professor Tadhg O'Keeffe
Funded by: The Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract
This research project is examining the role of the later medieval castle or tower house in Gaelic Irish society. Inevitably such a study must confront the complexities of a colonial past, and as a result the approach being adopted here is a formal comparative analysis of the castles in juxtaposition with a reading of colonial and native Irish literary sources. There has been increasing interest in tower houses in recent years but yet little is known about how the Gaelic Irish, as an ethnic group, occupied them or perceived them. It is the aim of this study to explore beyond the notion of castles as purely utilitarian or military buildings and to trace their role within the complex ethnic interchanges of later medieval Ireland. The study also pursues issues of building and identity into the post-medieval period, examining representations of castles and the Irish in antiquarian literature and fiction. Key study areas are the baronies of Upper and Lower Ormond in Co. Tipperary and the baronies of Bunratty and Tulla in Co. Clare.