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The city of Cork itself
was founded in the sixth century by the establishment of a monastery and school
on the site by St. Finbarr. In the early ninth century the Norse Vikings raided
and later settled in the town, establishing it as a trading post.
In the twelfth century the county was granted to the Norman knights Fitzstephen
and De Cogan. They brought over other Anglo-Norman settlers and built near the
present city of Cork. Like the Norsemen, the Normans in the county gradually
merged with the native Irish and adopted the Irish way of life. The main names
of Norman extraction in the county are Barry, Roche, Cogan and Nagle.
The power of Norman and Gaelic families was broken after the unsuccessful revolt
of the Earl of Desmond in the late sixteenth century. Many families lost their
holdings and their land in 1583 to English adventurers. during what is known as
the Plantation of Munster, around 15,000 people were brought over and settled in
Cork an nearby counties. Most of them left during Hugh O'Neill's war with the
English in 1598. Some returned again after his defeat but the plantation was
largely a failure. Further English settlers came in the 1650's following the
defeat of the 1641 rebellion, and many left and emigrated to Canada, Australia
and the Americas.
In the Great famine of 1845-47, County Cork was one of the most severely
affected areas. The population which peaked at 854,000 in 1841 had fallen to
650,000 in 1851. Almost 150,000 people died between 1845 and 1850 and thousands
emigrated. The population is currently about 404,000.
Early Gaelic families are: McCarthy, O'Keefe, Murphy, O'Mahony,
O'Callaghan, O'Donovan, O'Driscoll, and O'Riordan.
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THE PENAL LAWS
THE POPERY CODE
After the defeat of the Catholic
King, James the II, by William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 169O, the Irish Parliament, which was
entirely Protestant, enacted laws to make sure that the Catholic majority would never again
endanger the Protestant Ascendancy. These anti-Catholic laws were designed
"to prevent the further growth of Popery."
These laws did not come from Parliament
at Westminster, but from the Irish
House of Commons, who were afraid Westminster would dilute them, as
were contrary to the terms of surrender granted to the followers of King James
Those articles promised Catholics
could exercise their own religion. The Penal
Laws were to destroy the last remnants of the Catholic landed gentry.
This is an abstract from the Bill
"Where as it is
notoriously known that the late rebellions in this kingdom have
been contrived, promoted and carried on by Popish archbishops, bishops, Jesuits and other ecclesiastical persons of the Romish clergy, and
forasmuch as the peace and public safety of the kingdom is in danger, by the
great number of the said archbishops which,
not only endeavor to withdraw His Majesty's subjects from their obedience, but do daily stir up and move sedition and rebellion...
No Catholic may sit in the Irish
No Catholic may be a solicitor,
game-keeper or constable.
No Catholic may possess a horse of
greater value than L.5.
Any Protestant offering that sum can take
possession of the
hunter or carriage horse of a Roman
No Catholic may attend a university, keep
a school, or send his children to be
L.10 reward is offered for the
discovery of a Roman Catholic schoolmaster.
No Catholic may buy land or receive it as
a gift from a Protestant.
No Catholic may bequeath his estate as a
whole, but must divide it among
all his sons, unless one of those sons
become Protestant, where he will inherit
the whole estate.
No Catholic may be the guardian of a
child. The orphan children of Catholics
must be brought up as Protestants."