The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #52454 Message #2365681
Posted By: GUEST,JTT
14-Jun-08 - 04:35 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Follow Me Up to Carlow
Subject: RE: Origins: Follow me up to Carlow
Incidentally, Carlow is a *county*, so it's not necessarily the town we're talking about.
The 'Irishry' of the Wicklow Hills, centred on Glen Imaal and Glenmalure where the O'Byrnes had their HQ, harried the Pale - Dublin and its surrounds - trying to drive out the English and lowland Scots settlers, for some hundreds of years. The Military Road south from Dublin through Wicklow was built to bring soldiers easily into their territory. Nice scenic drive now.
There were constant reports of raids into such neat suburbs as Donnybrook by the Wicklow contingent.
Incidentally, it's not only Fitzwilliam who was black; the O'Byrne/O Broin family are a very dark-skinned and dark-haired lot. I used to know some of them. It's still traditional for every eldest son to be called Fiach.