The Furlong's of Ireland- Part 3

"According to tradition the manor and demesne of Carrigmannon was granted to the Furlong family, under the following circumstances. A gentleman of the name of the Furlongs of Furlong in Devonshire was in the train of Henry II during his visit to Ireland in 1172 when that monarch was passing a few days in Wexford. He was one day riding with some followers to chase the deer in the great oak forest of Glynn. Furlong was one of the party, and was so fortunate as to kill an immense boar which had attacked the King. The sovereign knighted his preserver at once and bestowed on him a large tract of land in the neighborhood. The Irish branch of the family assumed for their arms, the bearing of a boar issuant from an oakwood. The seat of the family was held by the curious tenure of sending a birch broom and paying suit of court yearly."

The Furlongs of County Wexford by William H. Jeffery

We do know that the Norman invasions (they continued for years) was a violent and continuous period. The Normans were better organised and had a professional army. The Irish were spare time soldiers with experience only in tribal fighting. the Normans won every battle or almost all of them. They beat the Irish in each area they came to as they toured Ireland and when they got back to the start they found the tribe ready to fight again. So they never did get them all down at the same time. In addition they had to fight the Norse in all the towns of Ireland. The Norse had been in Ireland for several hundred years and had built and held all the coast towns. The Irish had finally beaten them in 1014 in the Battle of Clontarf.

So, for a hundred years or more after Robertus landed we have Normans touring the country fighting the Irish tribes. Wexford was no doubt the strong point from which they issued forth to engage the tribes in battle. It was very convenient for warrior such as the Normans. Only forty miles across the sea from their Welsh supply bases. They had control of Bannow Bay which was in between Wexford City and Waterford City, both cities had Norsemen in large numbers and Bannows shallow bay suited their Viking type ships.

Today the names of those recorded with the 1169 invasion are still to be found in the list of owners of farms within forty miles of Bannow. Prince John invaded Ireland in 1185 and Henry died in 1189. More killing and burning of Irish homes. The record shows it was to continue for eight hundred years.