[Stephen Curtin]

Hey Gabriele. Thanks for the reply.

[Stephen Curtin]

FitzGerald positioned his men on top of a hill, which after this battle is named knockdoe, the hill of axes. Burke's infantry start the battle by advancing up the hill. Here's some more from the Book of Howth:

"With that the Irish galoglas came on, to whom the English archers sent them such a shower of arrows that their weapon and their hands were put fast together. MackSwine, captain of the Irish galoglasse, came foremost, and asked where was Great Darsey? Darsey answered that he was at hand, which he should well understand. With that McSwine strack Darsey such a blow upon the helmet that he put Darsey upon his knees. With that Nangell, Baron of the Nowan, being a lusty gentleman that day, gave McSwine such payment that he was satisfied ever after."

So if this account is to be believed, after advancing up the hill but before the two forces clashed, a MacSweeney gallowglass issued a challenge of single combat to a man named D'Arcy. This is interesting as it goes against the idea that Gaels always charged headlong into battle.

[Gabriele Becattini]

if i have to make a guess Stephen, i would imagine a gallowglass unit arriving pretty disciplined on the battle field in a impressive block, then engage the enemy in a loose formation, given the nature of their weaponry,

probably they were pretty capable to ordinate manouvres, like reforming, marching and so on, but the only tactic that i could ascribe to them is a straight charge to the enemy , that could have been easily degenerate in a series of individual clashes.

i see a gallowglass more like an individual "hero" that is for administrative purpose grouped in a large formation, than like a proper footman

[Stephen Curtin]

Based on what I currently know about how the sparth axe was used I agree with you Gabriele. The fact that quite a bit of space is needed to wield this weapon, means that it would have been poorly suited to fighting in a tightly packed formation. Against an opposing force of gallowglass this wouldn't matter, as you say, the situation probably ended up in a bunch of individual clashes. The English bill on the other hand was well suited to fighting in tight formations. This means that in a fight between a battalion of gallowglass and a battalion of billmen, with the gallowglass standing a couple of feet apart from one another, and the billmen standing shoulder to shoulder, there would probably be at least twice as many billmen to gallowglass in a given area. Not good for the gallowglass. As Gallowglass rarely met Billmen in a straight on fight, they probably didn't feel the need to change their equipment or tactics.

[Gabriele Becattini]

i believe that it is the common situation where a tribal culture clash with a more "evolute" culture, speaking from a military point of view

at first they are not able to adapt to the new nature of warfare brought by an enemy that act outside the traditional way of waging war, both in terms of weaponry but also in warrior ethos and scope, and by the time they are ready to adopt new tastics, it is usually toot late,

the last phase of the irish wars is a perfect example, had O'Neill had the time to train is force by the continental and english standards, probably the outcome could have been different,

gallowglass were in effect an anachronism, still good in a traditional warfare but useless in the long term, against a more advanced military system,

very sad

[Stephen Curtin]

I can't seem to find it right now, but I remember reading an Elizabethan account which described gallowglass' axes as having iron studs set into the shaft to deliver more powerful blows with. If these studs were set into the butt end of the shaft, then this would mean that both ends of the weapon were used in combat. This in turn means that the sparth was wielded similarly to a quarter staff rather than a more thrust orientated bill. This is more evidence that a sparth axe required plenty of room to be wielded in combat.

I'm still trying to figure out why the gallowglass adopted the sparth axe en masse, and why it was never replaced with more versatile polearms such as halberds and bills.

[Gabriele Becattini]

it has already been told many times, but really i believe that it is not necessary to look elsewere for a satisfactory answer to your question


the sparth axe and mail armour are just the retention of the hebridean -norse Heritage in terms of equipement and warrior ethos,

in a tribal, conservative society, the necessity to update weapons and tactics is not felt, tradition is a strong bound

if the tudor conquest never happened, probably the gallowglass could have survived well into the 17th century with their axe and mail, who can tell

[Stephen Curtin]

[Gabriele Becattini]

Gallowglass were elite infantry, and they borrow the axe-mail combination from their scandinavian elite equivalent, it is not

something that can be applied to the Whole Norvegian military system.

the regular infantry fought in a shield wall,, not their elite, as the majority of the gael infantry were not equipped with mail and axes so they do not use them en masse



again, the retention of the old way of fighting was true for the conservative military elite, not for the ordinary infantry,

when gaels adopt firearms, they were likely to be seen in the hands of an ordinary kern, but not in the hands of a proud gallowglass

or at least is what i think

my ideas sounds a bit like statements, but only because my english is not articolate enough as you justly said, we can only make an educated guess

[Benjamin H. Abbott]

[Stephen Curtin]

Gabriele your English is infinitely better than my Italian 😁

Don't worry English is my first language and my ideas often come across as if I'm stating facts, but if you follow my posts you'll see that my opinions frequently change.

Yes it is true that by the time that gallowglass start to show up, Norwegian elite soldiers no longer fought in a shieldwall. In fact they no longer fought as infantry. By this time Norwegian elite soldiers had become heavy cavalry.

According to a 13th century Norwegian law, a man with 6 weighted marks in goods was to own a spear, a shield, and either a sword or an axe.
A man with 12 weighted marks was to own a helmet, a spear, a shield, and a sword or an axe.
A man with 18 weighted marks was to own either a gambeson or a hauberk, a helmet, a spear, a shield, and a sword or an axe.

The closest thing to a gallowglass here is the man with 18 weighted marks.

The Gaels may have adopted the battle axe from the Norse, but even in the 13th Norwegian heavy infantry fought primarily with spears and shields. As far as I know no Norsemen fought in formations of primarily axe armed men.

Ok you have a point. It was mostly kerns who used firearms in the 16th, but by the 17th, when mail armour and axes were for the most part abandoned, men of the same social standing did use firearms.

[Stephen Curtin]

Benjamin. As you say, using a sparth axe in a densely packed formation would limit you to downward vertical blows. My thoughts on halberd use in formation is that they were primarily used for thrusting, with chopping and hooking being secondary. As sparths aren't good at thrusting, I think it unlikely that they were used like halberds.

[Charles Dooley]

A contemporary illustration of gallowglass in action can be found in Derricke's 'Image of Irelande'. Derricke may never have actually witnessed an Irish army facing an English force in the field, but he may have worked from eyewitness accounts. At the least, this woodcut shows how the English perceived galloglass tactics.

In the background, a force of gallowglass retreats from English gunfire while a single gallowglass supported by two javelin men faces halberdiers in a delaying action. The gallowglass are formed as an organized body of heavy infantry.

[Stephen Curtin]

Hi Charles. Thanks for reminding me of Derricke's Image of Irelande. I had noticed the gallowglass and his two javelin armed attendants before but had forgotten all about it.

As I said in an earlier post these 3 men made up a unit called spar, with a battalion being made up of about 80 spars. If it's true that gallowglass fought in loose formations, then this would leave plenty of room for their attendants in the second rank, to shoot arrows or throw javelins through the gaps between the gallowglass in the first rank.

The gallowglass in Derricke do seem to have been in a block formation rather than a line, but as they are fleeing its not definite.

[Charles Dooley]

Derricke shows much greater detail in his depiction of the English equipment. I would hazard that he had a few pieces of Irish gear, a couple of helmets and a saddle possibly, and for the rest relied on an eyewitness description of the battle.

For what it's worth the English halbardiers are fighting in reasonably close order.

[Gabriele Becattini]

of course i have no idea from where the gallowglass has truly developped, the closest models that i can find are the anglo-saxon huscarls and the varagin guard of the byzantine empire,

given the distinct "norse" character of both, i can only imagine that the gallowglass were born in the same cultural humus, and so the ombination mail-axe can be ascribed to the norwegians....


on the firearms, as you said, they were adopted by man of social standing after the demise of the mail and axe, and so probably they were never by a true gallowglass,

i cannot imagine a fighting "hero" born with a ferocius ethos of the hand to hand fighting, degrade himself to use a gun,

[Stephen Curtin]

[Stephen Curtin]

Here's a funny side note on the subject of gallowglass using guns. In the 17th and 18th centuries, during the melee that followed a highland charge, clansmen who didn't have a sword fought using their muskets as improvised clubs. Well I imagine a musket used in this fashion would perform a lot like a blunt battle axe. I wonder if any of the axe fighting techniques used by gallowglass got passed down and used for this purpose.

[Gabriele Becattini]

skilled bowmen are much more likely to be associated with the highlands and the western isles than ireland, apparently the irish archery was not taken in great esteem by the english Writers, but here we enter in another complex question...


a "true gallowglass" in my thinking is someone trained from Young age to melee combat, born and raised in warrior and martial tradition dating back to the heroic ages,

from what i have understood gallowglass cultivated a warrior ethos of ferocity, courage and loyalty, they were not simply heavy infantry, they were an elite infantry and like all the fighting elites they must have regarded themselves as something special

when they were forced to quit their elite role, they soon disappeared,

it is not the first time in history that a fighting elite, once their "reason d'etre" is removed, slipped in the oblivion rather than change their role,

[Stephen Curtin]

Yes archery was more prevalent in the Highlands and Isles, whereas javelins and darts were preferred in Ireland. In both countries elite Gaelic troops used missile weapons. Of course the troops that we now think of as gallowglass were instilled with the warriors mindset and trained from a young age. My point was that "gallowglass" or "redshanks" are terms which could include both heavy and light infantry. All that the word gallowglass meant was that the troops (or their ancestors) came from the Western Highlands or Isles. Indeed these light infantrymen could also be considered elite in their own right. Many sources speak of how fast and agile Gaels were, and how they were expert marksmen, with firearms, bows or javelins. These skills required training. In fact the unarmoured kern, with his javelin, spear, shield and scian, more closely resemble the heros form Gaelic tradition.