View source for The Pale

{{Short description|Part of Ireland controlled by England in the Late Middle Ages}}
{{Hatnote|This article refers to a Pale in Ireland. It is not to be confused with the [[Pale of Calais]] or the [[Pale of Settlement]]. For other uses of "pale" or "Pale" as a noun, see [[Pale (disambiguation)|Pale]].}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}

[[Image:Ireland 1450.png|thumb|right|The Pale (grey) in 1450]]
'''The Pale''' ([[Irish language|Irish]]: ''An Pháil'') or '''the English Pale''' (''{{lang|gd|An Pháil Shasanach}}'' or ''{{lang|gd|An Ghalltacht}}'') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the [[Late Middle Ages]]. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast stretching north from [[Dalkey]], just south of [[Dublin]], to the garrison town of [[Dundalk]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/topic45.shtml |title=Northern Ireland – A Short History |publisher=BBC |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110223628/http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/topic45.shtml |archive-date=10 November 2012 }}</ref> The inland boundary went to [[Naas]] and [[Leixlip]] around the [[Earldom of Kildare]], towards [[Trim, County Meath|Trim]] and north towards [[Kells, County Meath|Kells]]. In this district, many [[townland]]s have English or Norman-French names, the latter associated with Anglo-Norman influence in England.

==Etymology==
The word ''pale'', meaning a fence, is derived from the Latin word ''{{Wikt-lang|la|palus|pālus}}'', meaning "stake", specifically a stake used to support a fence.<ref>"palus." ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary''. MICRA, Inc. 22 December 2009.</ref> A paling fence is made of pales ganged side by side, and the word ''[[palisade]]'' is derived from the same root. From this came the figurative meaning of "boundary". The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' is dubious about the popular notion that the phrase ''[[Wiktionary:beyond the pale|beyond the pale]]'', as something outside the boundary—i.e., uncivilised—derives from this specific Irish meaning.<ref>[[OED]], "Pale": "The theory that the origin of the phrase relates to any of several specific regions, such as the area of Ireland formerly called the Pale (see sense 4b) or the Pale of Settlement in Russia (see sense 4c), is not supported by the early historical evidence and is likely to be a later rationalization."</ref> Also derived from the "boundary" concept was the idea of a pale as an area within which local laws were valid. The term was used not only for the Pale in Ireland but also for various other English overseas settlements, notably [[Pale of Calais|English Calais]]. The term was also used to refer to specific regions in other nations: the term [[Pale of Settlement]] was applied to the area in the west of [[Imperial Russia]] where Jews were permitted to reside.<ref>See [[wikt:pale#English|'pale']], English: Etymology 2.6. on Wiktionary.</ref>

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2024}}
The Pale was a strip of land that stretched north from Dalkey in Dublin to Dundalk in Louth; it became the base of English rule in Ireland. The [[Norman invasion of Ireland]], beginning in 1169, created the [[Lordship of Ireland]] and brought Ireland under the theoretical control of the [[Plantagenet]] Kings of England. From the 13th century onwards, the [[Hiberno-Norman]] occupation in Ireland at first faltered, then waned. Across most of Ireland, the [[Normans]] increasingly assimilated into Irish culture after 1300. They made alliances with neighbouring autonomous Gaelic lords. In the long periods when there was no large royal army in Ireland, the Norman lords, like their Gaelic neighbours in the provinces, acted essentially as independent rulers in their own areas.

The Lordship controlled by the English king shrank accordingly, and as parts of its perimeter in counties [[County Meath|Meath]] and [[County Kildare|Kildare]] were fenced or ditched, it became known as the Pale, deriving from the [[Latin]] word {{lang|la|palus}}, a stake, or, [[synecdoche|synecdochically]], a fence. Parts can still be seen west of [[Clane]] on the grounds of what is now [[Clongowes Wood College]]. The military power of the crown itself was greatly weakened by the [[Hundred Years War]] (1337–1453), and the [[Wars of the Roses]] (1455–85). The [[Parliament of Ireland]] was created, often sitting at [[Drogheda]] until the [[Tudors]] took a greater interest in Irish affairs from 1485 and moved it back to Dublin. The Pale generally consisted of fertile lowlands which were easier for the garrison to defend from ambush than hilly or wooded ground. For reasons of trade and administration, a version of English became the official language. Its closest modern derivative is said to be the accent used by natives of [[Fingal]].
[[File:The Pale According to the Statute of 1488 edit.jpg|thumb|The Pale – According to Statute of 1488]]
In 1366, so that the English Crown could assert its authority over the settlers, a parliament was assembled in [[Kilkenny]] and the [[Statute of Kilkenny]] was enacted. The statute decreed that [[Interethnic marriage|intermarriage]] between English settlers and Irish natives was forbidden. It also forbade the settlers from using the [[Irish language]] and adopting Irish modes of dress or other customs, as such practices were already common. The adoption of Gaelic [[Brehon law|Brehon]] property law, in particular, undermined the [[feudal]] nature of the Lordship. The Act was never implemented successfully, even in the Pale itself. This inability to enforce the statute indicated that Ireland was withdrawing from English cultural norms.

By the Tudor period, the [[Irish language|Irish culture and language]] had reestablished itself in regions conquered by the Anglo-Normans: "even in the Pale, all the common folk&nbsp;... for the most part are of Irish birth, Irish habit and of Irish language".<ref name="multitext.ucc.ie">{{cite web |url=http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Culture__Religion_in_Tudor_Ireland_1494-1558 |title=Culture & Religion in Tudor Ireland, 1494–1558. |website=[[University College Cork]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416173828/http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Culture__Religion_in_Tudor_Ireland_1494-1558 |archive-date=16 April 2008}}</ref> At a higher social level, there was extensive intermarriage between the Gaelic Irish aristocracy and Anglo-Norman lords, beginning not long after the invasion.

By the late 15th century, the Pale became the only part of Ireland that remained subject to the English king, with most of the island paying only token recognition of the overlordship of the English crown. The tax base shrank to a fraction of what it had been in 1300. A proverb quoted by [[Sir John Davies]] said that "whoso lives by west of the [[River Barrow|Barrow]], lives west of the law."<ref name=Falkiner>{{cite book
 | last = Falkiner
 | first = Caesar Litton
 | title = Illustrations of Irish history and topography, mainly of the 17th century
 | url = https://archive.org/stream/illustrationsir00jouvgoog#page/n145/mode/2up
 | year = 1904
 | publisher = [[Longman|Longmans, Green, & Co]]
 | location = London
 | pages = 117
 | isbn = 1-144-76601-X
}}
</ref> The [[Earldom of Kildare|earls of Kildare]] ruled as lords deputy from 1470 (with more or less success), aided by alliances with the Gaelic lords. This lasted until the 1520s, when the earls passed out of royal favour, but the [[Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare|9th earl]] was reinstated in the 1530s. The brief revolt by his son [[Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of Kildare|"Silken Thomas"]] in 1534–35 served in the following decades to hasten the [[Tudor conquest of Ireland]], in which Dublin and the surviving Pale were used as the crown's main military base. A book ''A Perambulation of Leinster, Meath, and Louth, of which consist the English Pale'' (1596) expressed contemporary usage.<ref name=Falkiner />

The Pale was composed of [[Dublin]] and its surrounding area, the population of which was mainly made of [[Old English (Ireland)|Old English]] merchants who were loyal to the crown.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Canning |first1=Ruth A. |title=Profits and Patriotism: Nicholas Weston, Old English Merchants, and Ireland's Nine Years' War, 1594–1603 |journal=Irish Economic and Social History |date=2016 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=85–112 |doi=10.1177/0332489316666600 |jstor=26375947 |s2cid=157626208 }}</ref>

==Fortification==
[[Image:'The Pale' boundary line, Ireland.jpg|thumb|Modern plaque near [[Ballymore Eustace]] marks the end of the Pale.]]
The Pale boundary essentially consisted of a [[Ditch (fortification)|fortified ditch]] and rampart built around parts of the medieval counties of [[County Louth|Louth]], [[County Meath|Meath]], [[County Dublin|Dublin]] and [[County Kildare|Kildare]], leaving out half of Meath, most of Kildare, and southwest County Dublin. Border or garrison towns of the pale included [[Ardee]], [[Siddan]], [[Kells, County Meath|Kells]], [[Athboy]], [[Trim, County Meath|Trim]], [[Kilcock]], [[Clane]], [[Naas]], [[Harristown House, County Kildare|Harristown]], [[Ballymore Eustace]], [[Rathmore, County Kildare|Rathmore]], [[Kilteel]], [[Saggart]], [[Tallaght]] and [[Dalkey]]. The northern frontier of the Pale was marked by the De Verdon fortress of [[Castle Roche]], while the southern border lay slightly south of the present day [[M50 motorway (Ireland)|M50 motorway]] in Dublin, which crosses the site of what was [[Carrickmines Castle]]. The following description is from ''The Parish of Taney: A History of Dundrum, near Dublin, and Its Neighbourhood'' (1895):<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/parishoftaneyhis00balliala |title=The parish of Taney: a history of Dundrum, near Dublin, and its neighbourhood |last1=Ball |first1=F. Erlington |author1-link=F. Elrington Ball |last2=Hamilton |first2=Everard |date=1895 |location=Dublin |publisher=[[Hodges, Figgis]] |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

<blockquote>
In the period immediately after the Norman Settlement was constructed the barrier, known as the "Pale," separating the lands occupied by the settlers from those remaining in the hands of the Irish. This barrier consisted of a ditch, raised some ten or twelve feet from the ground, with a hedge of thorn on the outer side. It was constructed, not so much to keep out the Irish, as to form an obstacle in their way in their raids on the cattle of the settlers, and thus give time for a rescue. The Pale began at Dalkey, and followed a southwesterly direction towards Kilternan; then turning northwards passed Kilgobbin, where a castle still stands, and crossed the Parish of Taney to the south of that part of the lands of Balally now called Moreen, and thence in a westerly direction to Tallaght, and on to Naas in the County of Kildare. In the wall bounding Moreen is still to be seen a small watch-tower and the remains of a guard-house adjoining it. From this point a beacon-fire would raise the alarm as far as Tallaght, where an important castle stood. A portion of the Pale is still to be seen in Kildare between Clane and Clongowes Wood College at Sallins.
</blockquote>

Within the confines of the Pale, the leading gentry and merchants lived lives not too different from those of their counterparts in England, save for the constant fear of attack from the Gaelic Irish.
[[File:The Pale Ditch in South Dublin.tif|thumb|The Pale Ditch in South Dublin]]

Portions of the Pale ditch can still be seen in the Sandyford/Kilgobbin/Ballyogan areas of South Dublin. The best-preserved section can be visited and lies just south of the Ballyogan Road within the Ballyogan Recycling Park. It consists of pair of ditches on either side of a high flat-topped bank. The bank is 2 to 3 meters wide on the top and is approximately 2 meters above the bottom of the ditches. The entire length of this section is roughly 500 meters and the top of the bank is planted with hedgerow shrubs, indicating that the Pale ditch subsequently served as a field boundary.

Another section of the Pale ditch lies in the Clay Farm Ecopark, near the Ballyogan Road. This section is very different from the previous section, in that it does not consist of a double ditch and bank. Rather, the builders made use of an existing shallow escarpment, steepening the slope to create a 2 meter high barrier to movement from north to south. The purpose of this was probably to make it hard for Irish raiders to herd stolen cattle from the Pale to the Wicklow mountains to the south. That this feature was part of the Pale ditch was originally proposed by Rob Goodbody in the 1990s,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodbody |first1=Rob |title=On the borders of the pale |date=1993 |publisher=Pale Publishing |location=Dublin}}</ref> and recently confirmed by archaeology during the building of the Clay Farm housing development.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pale Boundary |url=https://excavations.ie/report/2018/Dublin/0027281/ |website=excavations.ie |access-date=10 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305100539/https://excavations.ie/report/2018/Dublin/0027281/ |archive-date=5 March 2023 |language=en |date=2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Both the sections described above are part of a single linear earthwork, designed to connect [[Kilgobbin Castle (Dublin)|Kilgobbin]] and [[Carrickmines Castle|Carrickmines]] castles, fortifications built by the Walsh Family during the medieval period to defend the southern marches of the Pale. Another, slightly less well-preserved section of the Pale ditch can be seen at Kilcross Crescent within the Kilcross housing estate near Sandyford village. This section consists of a bank approximately 200 metres long, although the associated ditches are no longer clearly visible.

===Potential section at Kiltalown===
In 1996, a linear [[Earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] running along the southern boundary of [[Kiltalown House]] near [[Jobstown]] in Tallaght was noted by the [[National Monuments Service]] as resembling that of the Pale ditch as found elsewhere.<ref name=Heritage_Ditch>{{cite web|url = https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8 | via = heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com | title = DU021-081---- : Linear earthwork : TALLAGHT | quote = Description: This linear earthwork runs along the S boundary of Kiltalown House. It survives in varying state of preservation and is similar in form to sections of the Pale Ditch identified elsewhere in South County Dublin. At its W extremity, opposite the turn off for Blessington, the bank has been disturbed and spread (Wth 12.75m, H 0.7m). It extends in an easterly direction (L 180m). Both upper edges of the embankment have been planted with mature trees. It narrows as it runs to the E (Wth 10m) which is the best, preserved section before taking a wide curve to the NNE. At this point it is flat-topped (Wth 7m, H 1.8m). A stream runs along the E side of the bank and an external ditch along the W side (Wth 2.5m, D 0.6m). The bank terminates c. 50m to the SSE of the House. Preliminary excavations in 1998 uncovered a posthole on the top of the bank which suggests evidence for a timber palisade (O'Keefe 2000, 94-95). According to Ball and Hamilton (1895, 8) the Pale ditch ran from Tallaght on to Naas in County Kildare. | website = [[National Monuments Service]] |access-date=2025-05-29 }}</ref> A survey and small-scale excavation of the tree-lined earthwork was carried out in March 1998, but found that establishing the archaeological significance of the earthwork was difficult, considering how similarly a potential section of the Pale ditch resembles an earthwork typical of a medieval enclosure. As ''excavations.ie'' notes:
<blockquote>
The Kiltalown earthwork belongs to the late medieval tradition of protective [[Enclosure (archaeology)|enclosure]] that reaches its [[apogee]] in the attempted enclosure of the English Pale in 1494–5, and the identification of it as part of the Pale is a reasonable one, but it may equally have enclosed an area of medieval parkland.<ref name = 1Excavations>{{cite web |last = O'Keefe | first = Tadhg|title=1999:276 - KILTALOWN HOUSE, Tallaght, Dublin | url=https://excavations.ie/report/1999/Dublin/0004160/ |website=excavations.ie |publisher = [[Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage]] |date = 2014-07-16| access-date=2025-07-13}}</ref>
</blockquote>

==End==
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2024}}
The idea of the Pale was inseparable from the notion of a separate Anglo-Irish polity and culture. After the 17th century, and especially after the [[Anglican Reformation]] and the [[Plantation of Ulster]], the "[[Old English (Ireland)|Old English]]" settlers were gradually assimilated into the Irish population. This was in large part due to their relative reluctance to give up [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] (those who did not worship in the [[Church of Ireland]] bore a variety of legal disabilities). They kept [[Hiberno-English|their version of the English language]], though by that time many of them also spoke Irish. Several of these men were notable contributors to literature in Irish, including [[Pierce Ferriter]] and [[Geoffrey Keating]]. [[Christopher Nugent]], 6th Baron Delvin, wrote an Irish-language primer for [[Elizabeth I]].

==Modern usage==
The term Ulster Pale has been used to describe [[Northern Ireland]] as it remains a part of the United Kingdom.

The term continues to be used in contemporary Irish speech to refer to [[County Dublin]] and nearby counties, generally critically—for example, a government department may be criticised for concentrating its resources on the Pale.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

==See also==
* [[Greater Dublin Area]]
* [[History of Ireland]]
* [[Kingdom of Dublin]]
* [[Pale of Settlement]] in Imperial Russia
* [[Beyond the Pale (disambiguation)|Beyond the Pale]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{commons category}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite report |last1=Fanning |first1=Bryan |last2=Veale |first2=Angela |last3=O'Connor |first3=Dawn |title=Beyond the Pale: asylum-seeking children and social exclusion in Ireland |location=Dublin |publisher=Irish Refugee Council |date=July 2001 |hdl=10468/3714 |hdl-access=free |doi=10.13140/RG.2.1.4018.6404 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Jefferies |first1=Henry A. |title=The Early Tudor Reformations in the Irish Pale |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |date=January 2001 |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=34–62 |doi=10.1017/S0022046900005911 |s2cid=162810438 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Power |first1=Gerald |chapter=Migration and Identity in Early Modern Ireland: the New English and the Pale community |pages=243–262 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3zXFCs9EfEYC&pg=PA243 |editor1-last=Ellis |editor1-first=Steven G. |editor2-last=Klusáková |editor2-first=Lud'a |title=Imagining Frontiers, Contesting Identities |date=2007 |publisher=Edizioni Plus |isbn=978-88-8492-466-7 }}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20010307223721/http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/cbs/pages/dept/history/norms/fitbk.htm A map of the Pale (late 15th century)]
*[http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/beyond_the_pale/ Origin of the word 'pale']
*[http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pal2.htm World Wide Words: Beyond the pale]

{{History of Dublin}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pale}}
[[Category:History of County Dublin]]
[[Category:History of County Meath]]
[[Category:Lordship of Ireland]]
[[Category:Settlement schemes]]