Latest / The History of Ireland: Rebellion, Empire, and Independence — Fexingo History / The Burning of Wildwood: Tudor Plantations Before Ulster
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Ulster Plantation in earlier episodes, and the Flight of the Earls that cleared the way for it. But the Tudors actually started experimenting with plantations decades earlier, in the midlands — in Laois and Offaly. Luna: Right, I remember you mentioned them briefly in the Ulster episode. But how did those earlier plantations actually work? Lucas: Well, they were smaller in scale and much more violent. The idea was to take land from the Gaelic Irish lords and replace them with English settlers — loyal subjects who would farm the land 'civilised' way, as the Tudors saw it. The first big push came under Queen Mary I in the 1550s. Lucas: She appointed the Earl of Sussex, Thomas Radclyffe, as Lord Deputy of Ireland, and his job was to subdue the O'More and O'Connor clans who controlled Laois and Offaly. These were tough, wooded regions — heavily forested, which gave the Irish cover for guerrilla attacks. The English called it 'wildwood.' Luna: Wildwood — that's a great name for it. So they literally had to burn through forests to get to the clans? Lucas: Exactly. The strategy was to clear the woods to remove hiding places, build forts, and establish garrisons. They set up strongholds at places like Port Laoise — which they renamed Maryborough — and at Dunamase, an old castle they refortified. Meanwhile, Offaly became King's County, and Laois became Queen's County. The names were meant to erase the Gaelic identity. Lucas: But the clans didn't just roll over. The O'Mores, led by a chieftain named Rory O'More, fought back fiercely. There's a famous story about how he used the very forests the English were trying to destroy to ambush supply lines and raid settlements. Luna: Wasn't there a policy called 'sorning' that made things worse? Lucas: Yeah, sorning was a Gaelic custom where a lord and his retinue would be hosted by a tenant — basically, the tenant provided food and lodging. The English saw this as extortion and used it as a pretext to justify confiscation, claiming the Irish lords were 'sorning' on their own people. It was part of the broader 'surrender and regrant' policy, where the Irish would surrender their lands to the Crown and get them back under English law — but many lost their titles entirely. Lucas: The problem was, the settlers the English brought in were often poorly vetted. Many were adventurers or soldiers who couldn't make a go of it, and the local Irish tenants were displaced or turned into labourers. The whole thing was a mess from the start. Luna: And did these plantations succeed in the long run? Lucas: Not really. By the end of the 16th century, the settlements in Laois and Offaly had largely collapsed. The O'Mores and O'Connors kept rising up, and the English couldn't hold the territory without massive military commitment. The real lesson the Tudors learned was that you needed a more systematic approach — which led directly to the Ulster Plantation after the Flight of the Earls. Lucas: It's interesting — the midland plantations are often overlooked because Ulster became so dominant, but they set the template. The legal framework, the use of confiscation, the plantation of loyal settlers — all of that was tested first in the wildwood. Luna: So this is kind of the prototype for the colonial policy that shaped modern Ireland. Lucas: Exactly. And it's a reminder that the Tudors were experimenting as they went. They didn't have a master plan from the start — they were learning through failure. But each failure made the next attempt more ruthless. Lucas: You know, it strikes me that in this conversation we're able to dig into these details because we don't have to interrupt for ads. That's something we deliberately choose — to keep this show ad-free and just focus on the history. If you appreciate that, and if you're in a position to support it, there's a link: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just if it feels right. Luna: Yeah, it's nice to have a conversation that doesn't get broken up. Anyway, back to the wildwood — what happened to the O'Mores after the plantations failed? Lucas: Rory O'More was eventually killed in 1578, but his descendants kept fighting. The name O'More survives, but the clan's power was broken. By the early 1600s, most of the old Gaelic nobility in Laois and Offaly had been dispossessed or killed. The land was regranted to English and Scottish undertakers, but even they struggled to hold it against the remnants of the Irish. Luna: So it was a cycle of violence that never really settled. Lucas: Right. And the same pattern repeated in Munster in the 1580s, and then in Ulster after 1609. The midland plantations were a kind of dress rehearsal. They showed the Crown that simply clearing forests and building forts wasn't enough — you needed to change the entire social structure, which is what they tried to do in Ulster. Lucas: One detail I love is that the O'Mores had a tradition of 'creaghting' — moving their cattle and families between summer and winter pastures. The English saw this as nomadic and therefore uncivilised, so they banned it. But for the Irish, it was a practical way to use the land. The ban just created more resentment. Luna: So the English were trying to impose a settled farming model on a society that had been semi-pastoral for centuries. Lucas: Exactly. And that cultural clash is at the heart of the whole plantation story. It wasn't just about land — it was about what it meant to be civilised. The Tudors believed that agriculture, fixed settlements, and English law were the markers of civilisation. The Gaelic Irish had their own systems — Brehon law, clan structures, transhumance — and those were deemed inferior and had to be replaced. Luna: That reminds me of something you said in the episode on Brehon law — how it was actually quite sophisticated. Lucas: It was. Brehon law had detailed provisions for everything from bee-keeping to divorce. But it was oral, not written, and it was based on kinship rather than territorial sovereignty. That made it incomprehensible to English bureaucrats. So they just swept it aside. Lucas: The midland plantations also introduced the idea of 'planters' — people who were granted land on condition they bring English tenants and build houses. But many of these planters were absentee, and the tenants they brought were often poor English soldiers who had no real stake in the land. The whole thing was a demographic failure. Luna: So the plantations created a kind of no-man's-land — not truly English, not truly Irish. Lucas: That's a good way to put it. And that instability lasted for generations. It's one of the reasons why the midlands became a hotbed of rebellion in the 1640s — the O'Mores and O'Connors were back, alongside the Confederates. Luna: So the legacy of these early plantations fed directly into the Cromwellian conquest we covered in episode 150. Lucas: Exactly. The wildwood was burned, but the embers kept smouldering. And when you look at the later plantations — Ulster, Cromwell's — they all drew on the same playbook: confiscate, transplant, settle. But the midland experiment was the first time the Crown tried it, and it set a precedent that would shape Irish history for centuries. Lucas: I think what's striking is how much of this history is still visible in the landscape. The names Maryborough and Portlaoise, the ruins of Dunamase castle, the place names that combine English and Irish elements. It's a palimpsest — you can read the layers of conquest in the map. Luna: That's a beautiful way to end. So next time I drive through Laois, I'll be thinking about the wildwood and Rory O'More. Lucas: And the fires that cleared it. Thanks for listening.