The English Pale: 'a failed entity'?
Ellis, Steven G.
Ellis, Steven G.
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2011-03
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Steven G Ellis (2011) 'The English Pale: 'a failed entity'?'. History Ireland, 19 (2):14-17.
Abstract
It is hardly surprising that Irish historians have been reluctant to engage with negative later medieval English perceptions of Ireland (see sidebar below), other than to impugn their veracity. In regard to the English Pale, for instance, studies of interaction between Gaedhil and Gaill have aimed to disprove its status as an international frontier; depictions of a shrinking 'English ground' call into question its military efficacy; and accounts of 'English degeneracy' - the spread of Irish customs among the English¿take from its significance as a cultural barrier. Moreover, what was a Tudor borderland with a fiercely English identity later became a core territory of an Irish Free State, which was at pains to downplay this same English heritage. Thus there are no exhibitions of Pale culture nor monuments to the Palesmenss exploits, because, to borrow a later phrase, the English Pale was, allegedly, 'a failed entity'.
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Wordwell Ltd.
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland