Stone Tower-Houses
The Middle Ages in Ireland were a time of political
and cultural chaos. The lack of a centralized government and the
invasion of the Normans throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries drastically
changed life both socially and culturally for Irish natives. The
arrival of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, signaled a time
of peace as the Anglo-Irish and native Irish learned to co-exist.
This peace notwithstanding, the continuing failure of a central authority
to take control made it necessary for communities to be on constant alert
in case of attack from other enemies, such as the English. This combination
of communal culture and defensive necessity led to the emergence of remarkable
structures known as tower-houses.
