On the Edge of the Pale The Rise and Decline of an Anglo-Irish Community in County Meath, 1170-1530

The area around Syddan, Co. Meath was the flashpoint between two civilizations the Gael and the Gaill in late medieval times. This territory became well known, as it was on the border of the Pale, where the forces of the northern Irish came face to face with the English. Combining an invaluable richness of sources, particularly the Dowdall deeds, she has succeeded in recreating a world full of action and characters, while exploring their values and the pressures under which they lived. It is interesting to discover that the communities in the northern borders of the Pale retained their identities for so much longer than elsewhere.