It's time to commemorate the 14th-century Bruce campaign in Castleknock, councillor says

"I'm a bit of a history buff myself," said Fine Gael Councillor Ted Leddy at last week's meeting of the Blanchardstown area committee.

Hence his interest in the Bruce campaign, the three-year military expedition across Ireland, from 1315 to 1318, led by Edward Bruce – brother of the rather better-known Robert the Bruce, King of Scots.

The campaign was a significant event in 14th-century Ireland, which may not be on the radar of all councillors, he said.

It was an attempt to reverse the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland, Leddy told others at the meeting, and – here was the kicker for him – involved a fight in Castleknock in 1317.

But "to my knowledge, there isn't even a plaque to it, anywhere in Castleknock", he said. "I think that's something we should look at."

He wants to see something to mark the moment, Leddy said. His motion called on the heritage officer to draw up a strategy "to mark the historic significance of Castleknock's role".

Exactly how significant the events at Castleknock were in this curious interlude in medieval history is debatable, said Christine Baker, the council heritage officer, at the meeting.

Any commemoration would do well to consider different historical interpretations and the wider context, Baker said. But her workload is mammoth at the moment, she said.

So, it would not be this year, she said, and her written response suggested tying any project in with the European "2027 The Year of the Normans" cultural initiative.

Other councillors on the council's local area committee for the Dublin 15 area said they were still eager to pursue the idea.

It fits with a broader push by area councillors for greater promotion of tourism spots and heritage in their neck of the woods, in the west of Fingal, to counterbalance the council campaigns that pull visitors to the beachy east.

Said Mary McCamley, a Labour councillor: "I think this would be great for part of the tourist strategy that we're embarking on at the moment."

The Bruce invasions

Current consensus is that the Bruce campaign in Ireland was part of the wider Scottish wars of independence against the English, says Joanna Richardson, who holds a doctorate in history from the University of Edinburgh.

Many modern historians think the motivation was to open up a second front in the war to drain resources, she said. "It helps divert."

"King Robert the Bruce is the big guy in Scotland. He has an ongoing campaign against the English, trying to establish his own kingship," she said.

It's his brother, Edward Bruce, who comes over to Ireland, she said.

Edward Bruce landed in the north of Ireland at Larne in 1315, marking the start of the campaign. His death in 1318 at a battle in Co. Louth was its end.

Richardson's own research has focused on the representation of Edward Bruce in John Barbour's The Bruce, an epic poem in Scots.

There are other conflicting reasons given for the campaign, in documents from the time, she said. "One is that Edward Bruce is a bit of a, how do I say this nicely, he just wants his own kingship basically."

In that telling, he just wants the glory and to be King of Ireland, she said.

But there's also a letter from the time from Domhnall Ó Néill and other Irish chieftains, she said. "They write to the Pope and say, the reason why we're making Edward Bruce our king is that we don't like the English, they're very tyrannical. We want Edward Bruce, because he is also one of us."

This aspect of the Scots and the Irish being the same people is an interesting thread, she said. "So there are these interesting ideas in the mix."

Not everybody agreed, of course. "It is also true that a lot of the Irish chronicles at the time say well, actually, they just came for three years and pillaged and destroyed and we hate the Scots even more than we hate the English," said Richardson.

The campaign did coincide with famines, and many people died, she said. "They do a lot of destroying food as they go."

So another interpretation is that this was just the next lot of invaders to come, and the rest is an excuse, she said.

There are of course arguments that accounts are coloured based on which side the author is on, she says.

How historians and the public interpret the importance of the Bruce campaign today is also coloured by which of those ideas they believe was behind it, she said.

In Castleknock

At the council meeting, Leddy, the Fine Gael councillor, focused his motion on how the campaign had come to Castleknock, and – more specifically – to Castleknock Castle.

Today, what is left of Castleknock Castle sits on the grounds of Castleknock College. The college would have to be on board with any project, said Baker, the heritage officer at the meeting.

But Baker cautioned that what went down in Castleknock may not in itself have been that momentous.

The historian F.E. Ball, who chronicled the Castleknock area, gives it five lines in his work, she said.

He writes that Edward Bruce made his way to Castleknock, took over the castle and took the baron and his wife prisoners until a ransom was paid – and then quickly retreated towards the Salmon Leap.

So, they should look at historic interpretations of the campaign in the bigger picture, said Baker. "That's my thoughts on it."

Richardson, the historian, says the battle in Castleknock was in 1317 during Edward Bruce's second campaign, a leg that involved his more famous brother, Robert the Bruce, too.

At this point, Edward Bruce was trying to move from his secure base in Ulster, which he gained during the initial invasion in 1315 and where he had the most support, and cement his rule over the whole of Ireland, she said.

"Whilst he engages in several successful battles and burns much of the countryside, he ultimately fails to gain much of a foothold outside of the north, which arguably ultimately leads to the failure of the whole enterprise," said Richardson.

In a way, the events at Castleknock and Dublin can be seen as rather typical of the campaigns, she said, "as they contain a success (taking Castleknock) combined with a failure to capitalise on such success (the Bruces ultimately decide not to besiege Dublin and instead carry on south despite having thrown the panicked inhabitants into some hasty defences of the city)".

Marking it

Richardson said she thinks there are few reasons why the Bruce campaigns aren't that well-known, to those outside the field at least.

One is that it's a bit of a random offshoot in history, she said, that Edward Bruce suddenly jumps over to Ireland for three years. "I think it's just a bit weird."

It doesn't fit neatly into many people's ideas about things either, she said.

It's also a bit awkward in the context of Scottish independence, if it's seen as the Scots invading somebody else while also resisting the English invasion themselves, she said. "There's that probably."

At last week's Blanchardstown meeting, Leddy threw out a few ideas for how he would like it to be marked in Castleknock.

There's a town in southern Germany that he often visits for personal reasons, where they have outdoor models of what the town looked like in medieval times. "I'd be in favour of something significant like that."

But at least a plaque or memorial, he said.

Richardson said that there is a diorama and interactive exhibits at Bannockburn, the site of the pivotal battle in Scottish independence.

"I think you can even play out the battle yourself," she said – see how well you do as a medieval military strategist.

And as a literature student, studying history through literature, she would advocate reading contemporaneous poetry and literature around the Bruce campaign, she says. "They're easier to get into."

At the council meeting, Aontú Councillor Ellen Troy, who was born in Edinburgh, said she thought Leddy's motion on the Bruce campaign was great.

"Especially because he is a Scotsman, that's great," she said, with a laugh.