Finnian of Clonard – also Finian, Fionán or Fionnán in Irish; or Finianus and Finanus in its Latinised form (470–549) – was one of the early Irish monastic saints, who founded Clonard Abbey in modern-day County Meath. The Twelve Apostles of Ireland studied under him. Finnian of Clonard is considered one of the fathers of Irish monasticism.
County Kildare in the province of Leinster, Ireland, was first defined as a diocese in 1111, shired in 1297 and assumed its present borders in 1836. Its location in the Liffey basin on the main routes from Dublin to the south and west meant it was a valuable possession and important theatre of events throughout Irish history.
Great Connell Priory is a former house of Augustinian canons dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint David, situated on the eastern side of the River Liffey, in the Barony of Connell just to the south-east of the town of Newbridge, County Kildare, Republic of Ireland.
Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, 4th Baron Lacy, was an Anglo-Norman landowner and royal office-holder. He had substantial land holdings in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Following his participation in the Norman Invasion of Ireland, he was granted, in 1172, the lands of the Kingdom of Meath by the Anglo-Norman King Henry II, but he had to gain control of them. The Lordship of Meath was then the most extensive liberty in Ireland.
Events from the year 1337 in Ireland.
John FitzThomas was an Anglo-Norman in the Peerage of Ireland, as 4th Lord of Offaly from 1287 and subsequently as 1st Earl of Kildare from 1316.
Sir William Talbot, 1st Baronet, was an Irish lawyer and politician. He sat as MP for County Kildare in the Parliament of 1613–1615 and was in 1628 one of the negotiators of the Graces. However, he is probably mainly remembered as the father of Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell.
Fromund le Brun was a cleric and judge in thirteenth-century Ireland who became Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He lost a long battle to become Archbishop of Dublin, due largely to his notorious pluralism. He also clashed bitterly with the formidable Archbishop of Cashel, David Mac Cerbaill, who excommunicated him.
Alexander de Balscot, also known as Alexander Petit was one of the leading Irish clerics and statesmen of the late fourteenth century, who held the offices of Bishop of Ossory, Bishop of Meath, Treasurer of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Sir Thomas Cusack (also spelt Cusacke or Cusake) (1490–1571) was an Anglo-Irish judge and statesman of the sixteenth century, who held the offices of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, and sat in the Irish House of Commons. He was one of the most trusted and dependable Crown servants of his time, although he led a somewhat turbulent private life.
Walter Wellesley (c.1470–1539) was a sixteenth-century Irish cleric and judge. He was Prior of Great Connell Priory, Bishop of Kildare 1529-39, and Master of the Rolls in Ireland 1531-2.
Peter Rowe was an Irish judge who held the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland intermittently between 1388 and 1397.
The Brotherhood of Saint George was a short-lived military guild, which was founded in Dublin in 1474 for the defence of the English-held territory of the Pale. For a short time, it was the only standing army maintained by the English Crown in Ireland. It was suppressed by King Henry VII in 1494, due to his suspicions about the Brotherhood's loyalty to his dynasty. It was not an order of knighthood, although some of its individual members were knights.
Sir Thomas Fitz-Christopher Plunket (c.1407–1471) was a leading Irish lawyer and judge of the fifteenth century who held office as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was an ancestor of the Duke of Wellington in the female line. His second marriage to the heiress Marian Cruise inspired the ballad The Song of Mary Cruys.
Walter de Cusack was an Anglo-Irish judge, magnate and military commander of the fourteenth century.
Hugh Canoun, or Hugh Canon was an English-born judge in early fourteenth-century Ireland. He was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and served as Deputy Justiciar of Ireland. As a judge he was praised for his good and faithful service to the English Crown, and as a lawyer he was known as "a man very knowledgeable about all the King's business". On the other hand, his loyalty to the Crown during the Scottish Invasion of Ireland in 1315-18 was said to be extremely doubtful, although he was saved from disgrace by his influential connections. He was murdered by Andrew de Bermingham of Athenry in 1317/18, during the last months of the Bruce Invasion, in the course of a private feud, of which little is known.
Sir Walter de la Haye, or de Haye was an English-born statesman and judge in Ireland of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, who served for many years as Sheriff of County Waterford and as Chief Escheator of Ireland, and briefly as Justiciar of Ireland.
William Alysaundre or Alesander was an Irish judge and Crown official in the reigns of King Edward I of England and his son Edward II.
Waleran de Wellesley was a judge, statesman and landowner in thirteenth century Ireland. He was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. He was the ancestor of the Duke of Wellington, and was the first of the de Wellesley family to settle in Ireland.
