over a wide area west of Howth. Much of the combat took place near or among the wharves and piers along the Liffey, which had been built to accommodate the large trading vessels that called at . A grandson of Brian named Tairrdelbach drowned after he was knocked unconscious under a weir. The outcome was decided late in the afternoon when the cohort from Dublin was broken at drochat Dubgaill (Dubgall’s Bridge), probably at the site of “Old Dublin Bridge” from Bridgefoot Street to Oxmantown. After Sigurd and Máelmórda were slain, the Viking forces tried to escape to their ships along the Liffey, but their retreat turned into a slaughter. They had beached their boats above the high-water mark, but an unusually high tide Leather shoe, Beleevna More, Co. Tyrone. Photograph floated the ships into the middle of the channel. reproduced with the kind permission of the Trustees of the Disaster struck the Irish as well. Brian’s son Murchad National Museums and Galleries of Northern . was slain in the battle, and Brian was cut down by escaping Vikings led by Brodor of York. The tract Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib (War of the Irish against the Vikings) Ó Corráin, Donncha. Ireland Before the . Dublin: Gill has a story that the Vikings were passing by Brian, and Macmillan, 1972. believing him to be a priest, when a mercenary previ- Ryan, John. “The Battle of Clontarf.” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 68 (1938): 1–50. ously in his service recognized him. The chronicler Todd, J. H., ed. Cogadh Gaedhel re Galliabh.(The War of the Marianus Scottus claims that Brian was at prayer when Gaedhil with the Gaill.) London: Rolls Series, 1867. he was slain. Although Brian’s troops held the field, with Brian and Murchad dead they were unable to proceed See also Amlaíb Cuarán; Brian Boru; Dublin; further. They were too decimated by the slaughter to Dál Cais; Fine Gall; Gormlaith (d: 1030); ; storm the fortress of Dublin. The survivors waited on Leinster; Máel Sechnaill II, Scandinavian the battlefield for two days until Donnchad returned on Influence; Ua Briain; Uí Néill, Southern; Easter Sunday. Their return home was hindered by fight- Viking Incursions; Weapons and Weaponry ing within their own ranks together with opposition from Brian’s subjects, who now rose in rebellion. Who won the battle of Clontarf? The insular records CLOTHING claim it as an Irish victory, even though Brian’s objective, Our picture of clothing in medieval Ireland is derived the capture of Dublin, was not achieved. A contemporary primarily from figurative scenes—particularly those Viking poem, however, flatly states that it was a victory from carved stone crosses and effigies and from illu- for the Vikings. From what is now known, perhaps the minated manuscripts—but also from descriptions in most fair assessment is that the battle was a stalemate contemporary literary sources. Additionally, there is a that exhausted both sides. body of surviving textiles: a small assemblage dating The battle of Clontarf demonstrated the military to the early medieval period and more extensive col- power of the Irish. Fighting an evenly matched oppo- lections recorded from medieval urban excavations in nent, Brian’s troops held the field against an interna- Dublin, Waterford, and Cork. While most of the extant tional force led by, in the case of Sigurd, one of the textiles do not compose entire garments, they do pro- premier warriors of the northern world. Stories about vide useful supplementary information. Clontarf circulated throughout Europe, from Iceland Society in Ireland throughout the medieval period to Francia. Brian passed into legend as the great hero- was hierarchical in nature, with clearly defined social king of the Irish. Nevertheless, the victory at Clontarf grades. In this context, clothing had a primary func- failed to unify the Irish, and ambitions towards national tional role to protect the wearer from extremes of cli- monarchy would be temporarily obscured by faction- mate, but could also act as a signal of the wearer’s alism and dynastic rivalries. status or cultural origins. The Irish law tracts made BENJAMIN HUDSON some attempt to regulate styles by imposing restrictions on the number of colors in garments worn by various ranks. The prevailing style of dress in the References and Further Reading early medieval period comprised a léine () worn Goedheer, A .J. Irish and Norse Accounts about the Battle of under a brat (). The léine was an ankle-length, Clontarf. Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon N.V., 1938. sleeveless garment worn next to the skin and made of

93 CLOTHING either white or gel (bright) linen. It was secured at the well as woollen truibhas with feet and soles. Contem- waist by a belt and could be hitched up to allow greater porary Anglo-Normans are shown wearing of freedom of movement. mid- to lower-calf length with Magyar-style sleeves, The brat was rectangular in shape and made from belted at the waist with a white sash from which a wool, and was sometimes large enough to wrap around scabbard was suspended, along with a traditional mantle the body five times. It could be brightly colored, with or cloak. The contrast in dress styles was probably most ornate decorative borders. The archaeological evi- apparent during the initial colonization period, while the dence suggests that the use of dyestuffs extracted from following centuries saw considerable mutual cultural the red-dyeing madder plant and the blue-dyeing woad influence, as evidenced by various statutes and laws that plant was important from at least the seventh and sought to discourage Anglo-Norman descendants from eighth centuries, while fringed, plaited, and tablet- adopting Gaelic modes of dress and appearance. woven braids recorded on early medieval textile frag- Anglo-Norman men and women wore an underdress, ments provide evidence as to the nature of decorative or , and an overgown, or . The kirtle was borders. The brat was secured on the breast by a round-necked with tight-fitting sleeves and was secured bronze, silver, or iron brooch or pin, depending on the at the waist or hips with a girdle (for women) or sash individual’s social status and wealth. (for men), from which personal objects such as keys or Figurative art also suggests that truibhas () scabbards were suspended. The surcoat could be sleeved were worn by horsemen and others engaged in outdoor or sleeveless, with deep armholes and with vertical slits activities. A series of small figures wearing knee- called fitchets that provided access to objects suspended length triubhas are recorded in the text of the Book of from the girdle. Both male and female versions of the Kells. The wearing of the léine and brat secured with had a slit at the neck, which during the twelfth a penannular brooch is recorded on the Cross of the and thirteenth centuries was commonly secured by a Scriptures at Clonmacnois, County Offaly, in a scene ring brooch. This dress fastener was introduced by the interpreted as the laying of the church foundation post Anglo-Normans, but a number of ring brooches were by Abbot Colmán and King Flann around 910. recovered from Gaelic Irish Crannóga. In winter, a man- There are few women depicted in the figurative art tle or fur-lined cape was also worn. The Irish mantle of the early medieval period, but descriptions in the appears to have been adopted by both communities, and myths and sagas indicate that the brat and léine were came to be an important trade item. worn by both sexes. From the early ninth century In the mid-fourteenth century a closer-fitting outfit onward women covered their heads with a veil or emerged for Anglo-Norman men, consisting of a knee- headdress. length garment called a gipon (later ) worn with The introduction to Old Irish before 900 of a number . The wearing of a doublet by Noah in the Book of Old Norse loan words—such as skyrta, which became of Ballymote, which dates to 1400, would suggest that scuird (shirt, tunic, cloak), and brok, which became bróg this was also adopted by the Gaelic Irish. A with (hose, trousers, [and later] shoes)—suggests that the buttons on the sleeves and and a full knife- Viking incursions had an impact on dress. In particular, pleated , seen on the double effigy at Knocktopher, the Vikings may have introduced the short tunic and County , is interpreted as an Irish adaptation trousers outfit, as well as the ionar, a form of tunic worn of the Anglo-Norman houppelande, and a garment of sim- over the léine. The Scandinavians are also generally ilar type was recovered from a bog in Moy, County Clare. credited with the introduction of silk cloth into Ireland The wearing of hoods with long, pointed extensions— through their increased trading connections. called liripipes by the Irish—represents an expression The Anglo-Norman Invasion of 1169 and the estab- of mutual cultural influence. lishment by Henry II of a stronghold in the Dublin As Ireland fell under increasingly direct English region in 1171 introduced a new aristocracy to Ireland, rule during the sixteenth century, the ascendancy who followed the of London and Europe. The redoubled its efforts to supplant Gaelic traditions and contrast in dress and appearance between the recently customs. In terms of clothing, this manifested itself as arrived Anglo-Normans and the Gaelic Irish is high- a growing struggle between the increasingly sober lighted in the descriptions and illustrations of Giraldus styles of London and the relative flamboyance of indig- Cambrensis in his Topographia Hiberniae. The léine, enous medieval dress. brat, and ionar continued to be worn by the Gaelic MARIA FITZGERALD Irish in the medieval period; the brat came to be called the “Irish mantle” and the léine the “saffron shirt.” Other garments of importance included a short- References and Further Reading hooded cloak called a cochall and a -type cloak Barber, J. W. “Early Christian .” Journal of the Cork of colored and patterned cloth called a fallaing, as Historical and Archaeological Society 36 (1981): 103–106.

94 CLYN, JOHN (d. 1349?)

Deevy, M. Medieval Ring Brooches in Ireland. Bray: Wordwell, noting who was knighted by whom. Clyn respected 1998. a certain code of conduct, which led him to express Dunlevy, M. Dress in Ireland. London: Batsford, 1989. displeasure at actions, perpetrated by either the native FitzGerald, M. “Dress Styles in Early Ireland (c. 5th–c. 12th A.D.)” MA Thesis, University College Dublin, 1991. Irish or the Anglo-Irish, that were contrary to the FitzGerald, M. “Textile Production in Prehistoric and Early highest standards of knighthood. Clyn has sometimes Medieval Ireland.” Ph.D. Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan been considered as hostile to the Irish, and indeed University, 2000. during this troubled period it was only to be expected Lucas, A. T. “Footwear in Early Ireland.” Journal of the County that they should receive censure, but Clyn is remark- Louth Archaeological Society 13 (1956): 309–394. McClintock, H. F. Old Irish and Highland Dress. Dundalk: able for his criticism of the troublesome members of Dundalgan Press, 1950. the Anglo-Irish nation also. Clyn is particularly dis- mayed by treachery or betrayal, in any form and by See also Craftwork; High Crosses; Jewelry and either nation. On balance, Clyn only refers to the Irish Personal Ornament; Kells, Book of; Society, nation in relation to its effect on the Anglo-Irish Grades of Anglo-Norman; Society, Grades of nation. Clyn exhibited a particular familiarity with Gaelic; Viking Incursions the local Mac Gillapatrick family. Among the Anglo- Irish, it is the de la Frene family that occasions most interest. The dominant personality in Clyn’s annals CLYN, FRIAR JOHN (d. 1349?) is Fulk de la Frene, whose knighting by the earl of John Clyn was an Anglo-Irish Franciscan friar and Ormond Clyn reports in 1335. Fulk emerges, in the author of Annals of Ireland by Friar John Clyn, Clyn’s annals, as a strong military man, and this is written in Kilkenny and covering the period from the reflected by the reports of his victories over the Irish and “beginning of the world” to 1349. According to the his success in expelling Anglo-Irish troublemakers. The seventeenth-century antiquarian , Clyn longest entry in the annals is for 1348, which describes was born in Leinster and held the degree of doctor. the horrors of the Black Death, an event that the writer The surname Clyn is not common in Ireland, but regarded as truly catastrophic and apocalyptic. Clyn’s there is a townland a few miles from Kilkenny called account of the plague opens with pilgrimages to the local Clinstown. From the annals, we learn that Clyn St. Mullins Well; these were, he tells us, inspired by fear became the first guardian of the friary of Carrickbeg of the plague. His entry includes the number of people (Carrick-on-Suir) in 1336, when the earl of Ormond who died in Dublin from August to Christmas, the presented the property to the . Clyn was number who had died in the Franciscan friaries of present in Kilkenny friary in 1348 during the Black Drogheda and Dublin from the beginning of the plague Death, when he identified himself as the author of to Christmas, and the information that the plague was the annals. The annals are famous for a dramatic first- at its height in Kilkenny during Lent. Although Clyn hand account of the Black Death in Ireland in 1349. enters the number of Dominicans who died in Kilkenny, A very rough seventeenth-century transcript claims he makes no mention of Franciscan deaths, but this infor- that Clyn was also guardian of the Franciscan friary mation could have been entered in another section of the of Kilkenny. Clyn’s original manuscript is no longer community book. Clyn also includes an account of the extant; Sir Richard Shee, sovereign (mayor) of Kilkenny, plague in Avignon and a lengthy account of an apoca- possessed the manuscript in 1543, and by 1631 it had lyptic vision given to a monk at the Cistercian monastery been acquired by David Rothe, bishop of Ossory. at Tripoli in 1347. It is with great sorrow, and a great Four main seventeenth-century transcripts survive, eulogy, that Clyn reports, in his last entry, the death of and they state that the annals were copied from the Fulk in 1349. The seventeenth-century transcripts sug- community book of the Franciscans of Kilkenny. gest that Clyn died of the plague. Another possibility is There is scant reference to Franciscan affairs, but as that Clyn was moved to a different friary as part of a the annals reportedly were part of the community possible redistribution necessary after the decimation of book of the Franciscans of Kilkenny, there would some friaries. A third possibility is simply that Clyn have been no need for such information in the annals. ceased to write once his friend, and perhaps patron, Fulk The annals consist of very brief entries, with years de la Frene, had died. often repeated and out of sequence, until 1333. All BERNADETTE WILLIAMS four transcripts agree that in 1333 a new section of the annals commenced. Clyn’s main interest is in the military society of the area surrounding Kilkenny in References and Further Reading a troubled period of Anglo-Irish history. Internal evi- Butler, Richard, ed. Annals of Ireland by Friar John Clyn and dence suggests that Clyn was familiar with military Thady Dowling, Together with the Annals of Ross. Dublin: society and displayed a great interest in knighthood, Ir. Arch Soc, 1849.

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