History
The settled, developed character of this southeastern corner of Ireland owes much to its history of invasion, settlement and trade. The Vikings wrought havoc, but they also built the port of Wexford, which developed steadily, all the while assimilating ideas and peoples from overseas, ensuring the continual cultural influence of Europe. The arrival of mercenaries from Wales, for instance, was common throughout the medieval period, and after Henry II had consolidated the Anglo-Norman victories, Strongbow settled fellow Welshmen in the region: a dialect descended from these people, known as yola, survived in the far southeast of County Wexford right into the nineteenth century. But it was the power of the English Crown that was to have by far the greatest influence on the character of the region. The towns of Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny still bear the marks of their Anglo-Norman past in city walls and ruined castles; the well-tended farmland of rich surrounding countryside similarly reflects centuries of English settlement. The Anglo-Norman takeover of the southeast was swift, and would have been total were it not for the fiercely Gaelic enclave of counties Carlow and Wexford. There the MacMurrough Kavanaghs became the scourge of the English in Ireland, and they continually thwarted the Crown's attempts to control the entire region. It was Art MacMurrough who defeated Richard II in battles which lost the king not only control of Ireland, but his English throne, too. Only after the arrival of Cromwell was the power of the MacMurroughs broken once and for all. Colonization was thereafter pursued vigorously: the proximity of the Pale - and of England itself - meant that the Crown's influence was always far stronger here than in the remote west. The English found this area easier to control and administer, and during the growing unrest of the eighteenth century the region remained relatively tranquil. Surprisingly then, by far the most significant uprisings of the 1798 Rebellion took place in counties Wexford and Carlow. For nationalists the bloodshed and heroics of that summer form the region's most feted history and legend.
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