Gaelic Archery

[Celtchar]

Thank you all for the excellent information. What did they use for spearheads?

[oleg]

Getting back to the archery, there is an article by Andrew Halpin freely available - Military Archery in Medieval Ireland: Archaeology and History.
http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/pdfs/halpin.pdf

I guess, it includes at least part of the information from the book John has already suggested(classification, frequencies and hypothesis about usage patterns).
It's worth to mention that I didn't get the book yet.

[Celtchar]

Thank you!

[finnobreanan]

http://shop.museum.ie/p-80-weapons-and-warfare-in-viking-and-medieval-dublin.aspx has pretty much everything you need to know about archery from the archeological record - dozesn of bows, and hundreds of every type of arrow you can think of. Even a viking crossbow, with an antler nut. Some nice conclusions about the change from unarmoured to armoured targets, based on how arrowheads changed in shape and type.

John

John,
Thanks for the heads-up on this book. I ordered a copy directly from the museum, since the only copy I could find for sale here in the US cost $165.00 (128 Euros)!

[nathan]

yeah john alerted me about it when the book first came out well worth the buy they have other ones too some of which i have skimmed through but look good as well.

[the_power]

May as well summarize Halpin's stuff;
* No evidence of post-bronze-age Irish archery before 800
* Vikings did show bows to the Irish, but most bows were Viking
* By 13-14thC Irish used them pretty heavily, dedicated arrow/bow makers
* Lack of professional archers in Irish armies in the 15-16thC may have been a political reaction to use of bows by the English

[brendan]

I cant open the page where I have the info logged, but I am pretty sure that there is no reference to bow makers or fletchers in the status stuff under Brehon law...given that comb makers and the like are listed this is an interesting omission and may reflect how these skills were viewed

[nathan]

they were there alright and the process of making crossbows was a reasonable industry too.
what sort of period is that brehon law referring to though brendan?

[brendan]

Brehon Law - Early to C16, so it should have showed up at some point...again, will have to check notes
checked and no explicit mention, though maybe it fell under the general carpenter stuff...and they were high status

[nathan]

i would think the title of bowyer would be separate as they would have had their own guilds?