The Fight for Ireland
Part I
In 1171, King Henry II invaded Ireland under the guise of reforming the Irish Church, with a two-fold plan: first was to control the rising Norman Knight, Richard Strongbow, before he became a threat to England; second was to control Irish land to cut away for his youngest son John, called “Lackland”. In this morning’s singles tournament, individual combatants will play the part of major figures of the Anglo-Norman Invasion, fighting for the title Dominus Hiberniae.
Part II
400 years later, and the Pale remains—an English-Irish colonial divide around Dublin. In 1534, the 21-year-old Thomas FitzGerald, Acting Lord Deputy of Ireland, heard rumors that his father, the Lord Deputy, had been executed in London. In protest, he rode to the abbey with elite gallowglass warriors and threw down the Sword of State, formally declaring rebellion of the Pale against the English King Henry VIII. This afternoon’s melee will pit armies against one another—the allied Gaelic and Norman clans under Silken Thomas vs. those loyal to the English crown.