Castles in Ireland: Feudal Power in a Gaelic World.

Johnson, Matthew H.

TOM MCNEILL. xiii+261 pages, 132 illustrations. 1997. London: Routledge; 0-415-16537-7 hardback [pounds]35.

This book is an invaluable addition to the literature on castles. It covers an area hitherto little discussed or represented in the sweep of castle studies, and one that has long deserved more extended treatment. McNeill fulfils this role admirably. He gives us a general survey of castles and tower-houses in Ireland from the first English conquest through to c. 1500. The format and methodology of the book is largely traditional, though McNeill has new and valuable things to say on interpretation.

Castles in Ireland is divided into three parts. Part I looks at early castles to c. 1225, with separate chapters on stone and earth-and-timber construction and a discussion of the role of castles in the establishment of English lordships in Ireland. Part II covers the early 13th to the mid 14th century, defined as 'the central period of English lordship', covering castles McNeill interprets as derived from English models before moving on to lesser castles and castles of the Irish. The later Middle Ages are discussed in Part III, with discussions both of enclosure castles and tower-houses.

Within these sections the material is largely divided in a common-sense fashion. Castle is discussed after castle; in most cases it is clear that McNeill has examined the surviving fabric in some detail (not something that can be said for certain other recent syntheses) and that he has new and original things to say about their structure and interpretation at a very basic level. The drawings are generally clear and of good quality, with one or two exceptions; that of Roscommon for example (figure 55) is a little scrappy and, given the importance of this structure, could have done with a more detailed plan.

The division into period and then by theme works awkwardly in parts. For example, there is an invaluable discussion of tower-houses within Part III, but it is never really resolved whether these structures can truly be called 'castles'. In other places, it is often quite difficult to follow McNeill's overall argument. This is partly because he prefers to write in narrative mode rather than one of formal explanation, and partly because the reader tends to get lost in the (rightly) detailed exposition of the individual castles. As a result, chapters tend to degenerate into accounts of one castle after another with no clear narrative link. I suggest that the reader goes through the Epilogue a couple of times to get a clear view of where the author is 'coming from' before tackling the main text.

Archaeology is rightly a broad church, and traditional approaches to castle studies remain the orthodoxy, but I do find McNeill's approach nevertheless academically rather timid. There is an implicit deference to established narratives of castle development centred on England and France. This view has two limitations. First, change largely comes from 'core' areas of Europe and diffuses outwards; the task of the archaeologist is simply to record the extent of the diffusion. Second, there is an essentialist view of what castles 'really are', usually tied up with their military intent. McNeill's mastery of his data leads him to see the limitations of both views; creative adaptation of Irish castles is acknowledged, and we find that the military view simply does not work for many structures. Nevertheless, McNeill does not question these parameters: we are still on the periphery, castles are still either military or something else, in varying degrees in each case.

McNeill defers to Saunders in his definition of what a castle is; Saunders' (1977: 2) famous definition of a castle as 'a fortified residence which might combine administrative and judicial functions, but in which military considerations were paramount'. But McNeill later writes in apparent contradiction (p. 235):

'When we study castles . . . what we are studying are the structures of power, literally and metaphorically, in the society of the middle ages . . . . The nature of that power will be reflected in the structure of the castle, and so we should be able to deduce it from that structure. Until then, the castle is dumb, so we must not carry to the castle preconceived notions of its role.'

Thus is Saunders ably refuted; but McNeill neither makes the radical nature of his views explicit (over 200 pages separate these two points), nor does he extend his observations on power beyond traditional considerations of the exercise of feudal lordship. How were these buildings used as social arenas? How did medieval people move through them, subjectively experience spaces? How were castles viewed from specific points? (There is almost no discussion of the landscape surrounding castles.) How did the different daily lives of women and men manifest themselves in the organization of the castle?

All these points do not detract from the fact that Castles in Ireland is the most careful and scholarly book to be written on castles for a generation. As such, it is a major step forward for castle studies. Thomas Kuhn suggested that research within a given scientific paradigm would advance until it reached a point where the paradigm broke down under the weight of contrary evidence. McNeill has written a book that is successful in that it has pushed the traditional paradigm of castle studies a long way forward - to its limits. It is to pay a compliment to Castles in Ireland to say that it demonstrates that the contradictions of the traditional approach to castles are now painfully apparent.

MATTHEW H. JOHNSON Department of Archaeology University of Durham m.h.johnson@durham.ac.uk

Reference

SAUNDERS, A.D. 1977. Five castle excavations: reports of the Institute's project into the origins of the castles in England, Archaeological Journal 134: 1-156.