A reader (Hello Eoin) asked if I had any images of Irish
pike men from the 1590s. It was a little
difficult to discern the detail in the small image in my last blog. Looking through my collection I came across
the image above.
As we can see these pike men belonging to Eoin Mac Ruirigh Ó
Morda (Owny McRory O’More to the English) can be clearly made out. They are carrying their pikes at the trail and
have swords at their belts. They wear
clothes not unlike the Dungiven suit shown here. You will notice the ionad is shorter and not just because of the cinching of the sword belt.
I find their helmets very interesting.
Some of them are wearing morions and so are very up to date for the
times. Others, in the upper left-hand
corner are wearing helmets that look a couple of hundred years older. I’m inclined to think that these were loot
from Kilkenny Castle taken when New English Adventurers hired a band of Irish
mercenaries and made a successful surprise attack on the Butler
stronghold. The place was thoroughly
looted including the armoury. This military loot would have circulated throughout Leinster and might account for the source of the seemingly medieval helmets shown above.
Here’s what Sir George Carew and the Earl of Thomond wrote
about them to the English Privy Council. Ó Morda “Brought with him a troop of choyse pikes ..within half
caliver shotte of us in our sight all of
his grosse being to the number of 500 foote strong wherof 20 were horse and 300
bonaghes the best furnished men for war and the best apparelled we have seen in
the Kingdom.”
Peter Lombard says that O’Neill left some Tyrone soldiers
with the Leinster Lords and the ‘bonaghes’ may have been them or those of
Leinster we cannot be certain. Whoever
they were they made an impression.
This is an image from 1603 published in The Travel Album of
Hieronymus Tielch and depicts ‘an Irish Lackey’. I’m using it here because it once more gives
us a clear image of the soldiers clothing.
That said it is also a the best image I have of the dart which the Kern were so
renowned for casting with great accuracy.
Interesting pictures. Thanks for the continued journey through this period of Irish history.
ReplyDeleteReally great stuff again OB, thanks for that. Thats going to be a huge help for converting. There really is a uniformity to them it seems, and as you said it is either trews or bare legged, with mostly trews I imagine in the case of the forces of the Ulster Kings.
ReplyDeleteInteresting the Norman helmets. I can imagine them being kept for generations among Gaelic septs or in Anglo Irish families.
Very interesting OB!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much lads I'm glad it's proving interesting.
ReplyDeleteYeah those helmets had been around and well looked after for sometime.