Land, lineage and power: connecting dynastic conflict and climate change in late medieval Tír Chonaill

This study explores the connection between changing environmental and climatic conditions and dynastic conflict in late medieval Ireland, with a particular focus on the Uí Dhomhnaill (O’Donnell) dynasty in the kingdom of Tír Chonaill. By drawing on a range of paleoclimatic and historical sources, the study examines how the onset of the Little Ice Age after 1300 may have contributed to reduced agricultural output in this marginal region, thus intensifying competition among its ruling elites and their expansive networks of clients and kin. Traditionally, studies of segmentary conflict amongst Gaelic elites have focused on the more immediate political and interpersonal drivers of such conflicts. This study examines how the two great late medieval periods of conflict that split the Uí Dhomhnaill coincided with the two major medieval cold phases of the Little Ice Age. By using the Uí Dhomhnaill as a case study, this study proposes that the politics of Late Medieval Ireland was deeply affected by changes in the natural world, upon which the agricultural systems that underpinned Gaelic political and social structures relied.