Normans hid in city to escape ‘ethnic-cleansing by clans’

Gaelic clans were involved in bloodthirsty ethnic-cleansing when they murdered, raped, pillaged and burned with such brutal ferocity it forced Norman settlers to abandon large parts of rural Cork and cower behind the walls of the city for many years.

That’s the claim of Dr Paul MacCotter, a UCC lecturer in history and genealogy, and one of the country’s foremost historical geographers.

His research has also led him to believe the famed Blarney Castle was built by the Normans in an effort to hold back the marauding Gaelic clans who were sweeping through the Lee Valley and slaughtering their brother settlers. The castle, like others in the area, had a tall, thin tower which he believes may have been used to light fires, which could be seen for many miles, as signals that Gaelic clans were on the warpath.