September 19, 2004
The Battle of Knockdoe
I meant to mention this earlier…Last month, the people of Knockdoe commemorated the 500th anniversary of a battle between the Eighth Earl of Kildare, Gerald Fitzgerald and Finn Burke, Lord of Clanricarde. The hill, eight miles north east of Galway city overlooks flat, fertile farmland today, but on the 19th of August, 1504, ten thousand men fought a particularly bloody, hand-to-hand battle that left 2,000 men dead. The battle is noteworthy for a number of reasons; the first recorded use of a handgun in an Irish battle; the use of gallowglasses (Scottish mercenaries) on both sides and the fact that this battle was the biggest battle ever fought between Irish nobility. Finally, a fight that couldn’t be blamed on the British – in fact, Henry VII made Fitzgerald a knight of the Garter in 1505.
Posted by Monasette at September 19, 2004 09:20 PM