An Idea for an Irish American Republic TL

So, after reading many wonderful TLs on this forum, I have decided I want to try out an idea of my own. The main idea:
What would be the consequences of a mass exodus of Irish to the New World during the Tudor conquest of Ireland?
In ome sense this TL will be a bit of an Irish-wank as I'm trying to create a situation where the dominant culture in the new world is Irish, although this will only happen because the Irish get there asses kicked a number of times during the 16th and 17th centuries, causing this exodus to occur.
As many folks have commented on previous threads, an Irish empire centered in Ireland isn't going to happen. My goal is to create an Irish empire centered in the New World. Basically a USA but with Gaelic rather than English as the official langauge.

So I'm as much as I'm admitting that this TL may be a little bit wank-y, I'm also trying to create something feasible and realisitc. Thus, I would appreciate any criticism as to anything I'm putting in here that may be not so possible. So, please, anyone, I'd LOVE feedback.
 
Sketch of the TL so far

So, this is what I have so far. It's really sketchy at this point, and once I start actually writing this up for real, I'll make it more interesting, develop charcters, etc. But, I just want thoughts as to how feasible a lot of this is....

Sketch of TimeLine

1348: The Black Death hits Ireland – Norman cities and towns are devastated – Gaels living in the countryside are largely spared
However, Cormac Mac Carthy, King of Desmond and his sons are killed by the plague. After a brief fight between various branches of the family Dermod Mac Carthy, a cousin, is elected King.
1352: Dermod Mac Carthy allies with the O'Briens of Thormond and invades the Norman Earldoms of Desmond and Thormond. Due to Dermond's military skill, the Gaels win the war, and divide the conquered territory along the River Shannon. The center of the city of Limerick – King's Island – goes to the O'Briens, and the suburbs on the South Bank go to the Mac Carthy's
1361: Dermod Mac Carthy has come to the conclusion that many aspects of Norman law are preferable to traditional Gaelic Law, and decrees that from now on his successors will be chosen by primogeniture rather than election. Other branches of the family rise up against him, supported by the O'Briens. However, Mac Carthy has the support of the Normans in Limerick who help him win the seige of Limerick and defeat O'Brien
1363: Dermod I proclaims himself King of United Munster, and establishes his capital in Limerick. His Kingdom will use a mixture of Norman and Gaelic law, but, crucially, Gaelic will remain the language of the court. Normans, Gaels, and Vikings will receive equal treatment under the law
1371: Dermod I dies and is succeeded by his son Donal I. Donal is as whimsical as Dermod was cunning and ruthless
1378: a pair of Limerick merchants, a Gael (Sean) and a Viking (Snorri) of Icelandic descent, come to Donal with a proposal. They have noticed similarities between the Irish tale of St. Brendan, and the Icelandic sags. They believe that the “Promised Land” mentioned in St. Brendan's voyages is the same Vinland told about in the icelandic sagas. They wish to organize an expedition to Fiontir (Gaelic translation of “Wine-Land”) to conquer it in the name of the Mac Carthy's
1381: The Fiontir expedition departs. The arrive in Iceland by way of the Faroes, and try to recruit a local navigator who can show them the way to Greenland. Everyone says that the sea between Iceland and Greenland is no longer navigable, and that no expedition has returned in decades
the Fiontir expedition departs anyways, and discovers icebergs and sea ice blocking their way. They decide to return to Iceland after 2 weeks of trying to make landfall on Greenland. Snorri dies during the expedition
Sean and the remaining expedition members try to figure out what they can bring back to Donal to show their success. The only thing of value Iceland seems to have is fish, so they bring back a load of cod fish
it turns out that Donal has quite the taste for cod-fish and from then on annual fishing expeditions to Iceland are undertaken
1388: Donal dies, and is succeeded by his son Dougal II. Dougal II does not have the same taste for cod-fish, and the fishing ship and gear are turned over to a group of Limerick merchants

- - - I'm not sure what's going to happen for a bit here - - -

1427: the Limerick Iceland company are having difficulty with the treacherous seas between Ireland and Iceland. They hire a Portugese shipbuilder to build them better boats
1431: The first two ships in the new Limerick Iceland fleet are ready to sail. They will sail North to Iceland to fish, and then South to Portugal to trade fish for wine and other goods
1440s: Limerick is becoming the center of a booming Iceland cod trade
1453: The Fall of Constantinople – this cuts off overland trade to Asia, and Italian merchants begin to think about finding a sea route to Asia (The AGE of DISCOVERY Begins)
1455: An Iceland trade ship is blown off course returning from Iceland to Limerick and end up South of Greenland. Their mast has been broken, so they are forced to follow the current until they are brought to the coast of Labrador. They are able to fell trees to make a new mast before they are chased away by natives. They follow the coast Southeast before turning east off the end of Newfoundland. They discover the Grand Banks with their plentify fish stocks.
1457: The Limerick Iceland company merchants are ecstatic about the discovery of the new fishing grounds. They decide to keep the discovery as much of a secret as possible, but make moves to exploit the new fish stocks. They realize that this land is the same Fiontir that the Fiontir expedition was trying to reach
1459: Donal III succeeds to the throne.
1463: The Limerick Fish Merchant's Guild acquires a fleet of 20 caravels from Portugese shipbuilders. These ships will make the trip to the Fiontir fishing grounds faster and safer.
1471: Donal dies and is succeeded by his son Lonan II
1470s: Brittany enters a personal union with England – however the Duchy remains subject to the French crown
1488: rumours reach Venice about the Fiontir fishing grounds. Some Venetian explorer (“alt-Cabot”) gets a comission from the King of England to explore west. He discovers the Island of Newfoundland and enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence before returning. He ship is lost on the second voyage.
1490s: a treaty between France and England make Brittany subject to the Enlgish crown in exchange for giving up the Eastern part of its territory to the King of France. France is not willing to risk another hundred years war
1493: a rival explorer “alt-Coloumbus” working for Spain decides to use the trade winds to his advantage and heads for the southern parts of the New World. His expedition reaches the Caribbean, and then the coast of Florida
1495: alt-Columbus' second voyage – he rounds Florida, and there is hope that there may be a Southwest passage around the southern coast of Fiontir
1498: alt-Columbus' third voyage sets up a colony on the island of Hispaniola
1503: alt-de Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope and reaches India
1510s: A seasonal settlement on Fiontir is set up for drying and salting the fish caught – the chief fishers using it are Irish and Breton
1500 – 1520 – exploration is focused around the Gulf of Mexico area, looking for a Southeast passage.
1530s: After sailors staying on Fiontir are repeatedly attacked by natives, a fort is set up on an offshore island, and is permanently occupied by the Limerick Fish Merchants' Guild.
1540s: England converts to Protestantism – there is much turmoil based on religion
1550s: England decides it wants to re-conquer Ireland. The Kingdon of Munster along with other Kingdoms ally against the English invaders.
1560s: The War of Irish Conquest begins. It is very bloody, and the English drive many Gaels off their lands. King Dougal V flees to Fiontir, along with the Gaelic members of the Limerick company.
1569: The town of New Limerick is founded in Fiontir
1570s: the King Dougal has sent ships back to Ireland to recruit settlers for New Limerick. The English are happy to see many displaced Gaels leave. Fishers from Catholic Brittany are also recruited.
1580s: many settlements have sprung up all over Fiontir, and along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The farmland is mostly poor, and the settlers' life is hard.
1610s: many of the Irish settlers migrate up the St. Lawrence in search of better farmland. Meanwhile the English are beginning to set up colonies.
1650s: the English assert sovereignty over the New Irish colonies. The New Irish militia forms. They can't defeat the English at sea, but can defend the upper St. Lawrence valley past alt-Montreal. The New Irish end up with alt-Montreal and everything upriver while the English build a strong fort at alt-Quebec City
 
Themes I'm interested in exploring in this TL

1. I'm seeing this New Irish state as an Early Modern Republic - probably fairly oligarchical like the Dutch or Venetian republics, and based upon the original Limerick merchant's guild. Although there's going to be other influences, and I'm really excited to see what form of government could result. They'll have contact with the Haudenosaunee (AKA Iroquois), and may adopt a number of their ideas (they may even ally with them, and eventually intermarry enough that the majority of New Irish look more Native American than Irish). I was also bringing Iceland into the early TL because I thought that maybe the Althing would influence their government a bit. Although to be honest, I know almost nothing about the Althing at all.

2. I see the New Irish interacting with the native folk different that OTL colonizers did. Mostly because they won't have a mother country to support them, and will be more interested in learning how to survive in this new land than in taking or holding territory. Again, I'm seeing a lot of intermarriage, and eventually (maybe by 19th century) racial distinctions becoming obsolete. I'm definitely not thinking of this as a Noble Savage Paradise: there will definitely be wars, but maybe the New Irish will treat their native allies better than the English or French did...

3. To make things interesting in Europe, I see England getting Brittany and Scotland staying more true to the Auld alliance. Also, due to butterflies Castille and Aragon will probably stay separate. I'm thinking Aragon may end up inheriting the OTL Spanish Netherlands from Burgundy, so that Aragon can colonize out of Antwerp?? England, Castille, and Portugal will be the main colonizing nations. The French will be less of a colonizer than OTL due to the lack of Brittany, and maybe Aragon and Scotland will secondary contenders.

4. Due to butterflies, there will be no Henry VIII, but I want England to still end up Protestant (to make the Irish want to run from them more). Any ideas on how this could happen??
 
Chapter 1 - The King is Chosen

Part I – the Munster Renaissance

Chapter 1 – The King is Chosen

Dougal the Great is fairly well-known as the founder of the revived Kingdom of Munster. While he didn't live to be crowned King of Munster himself, he was the one who started the series of expansions and reforms that turned a stagnant backwater corner of Ireland into a successful, albeit small, Kingdom.
What is often forgotten about Dougal the Great is how improbable his reign was. When Dougal Mac Carthy was young, he was never thought of as a potential King. He was a second son of the Duhallow branch of the Mac Carthy dynasty. The King of Desmond was his distant cousin, but for centuries the tradition in the house of Mac Carthy Mor had been to appoint only the son or brother of the current King as the next head of the clan.
Thus Dougal spent most of his youth preparing for a life serving his clan as a military leader. He spent much of his youth traveling in England and France. He married a Frenchwoman by the name of Anne, and returned to Ireland with much experience of the ways of the continent. He lead the small army of Duhallow to victory agains the Norman Earldom of Desmond, but was never expected to be anything more than a military leader.
But, in 1348, everything changed. The worst plague in memory – the Black Death – hit Ireland. The cities and towns were hit the hardest, and, luckily, those were populated mostly by Normans. However, the rural Gaels suffered as well – with clan Mac Carthy being particularly hard hit. The royal family started getting sick one-by-one. King Cormac Mac Carthy succumbed to the plague just after his son Donal, who was due to succeed him on the throne. This placed the leadership of the clan in a position of uncertainty..
Those who are more familiar with the modern-era system of succession by primogeniture may forget that Kings in medieval Eire were not always succeeded by their son or brother. Under traditional Gaelic law, succession was determined by the system of Tanistry, where the relatives of the current King elected the King's successor. While, at least in the Kingdom of Desmond, it had become traditional for only sons or brothers of the current King to inherit the throne, it was certainly possible, and legal, for a nephew or cousin to be chosen as the successor. There was no formal order of succession, and, amongst the sons of the King, there was no rule that the firstborn must always be chosen.
An assembly of the nobility of Clan Mac Carthy was held at Castle Balycarbery to determine who would lead the clan, and thus assume the throne. The natural successor was Cormac's grandson Cormac of Muskery by his (also deceased) second son Dermod, who was due to lead the Mac Carthy house of Muskerry. However, Cormac was only 2 years old and was obviously unfit to be King. The Mac Carthy Reagh house from Carbery wanted their own Prince Donal Glas to sit on the throne, but this was seen by most of the clan as concentrating too much power behind the Prince of Carberry, who already led the most powerful branch of the clan. With only a minority in support of Donal Glas, but with no other obvious candidate for King, the clan was deadlocked.
After weeks without progress, lookouts noticed the army of Carberry approaching the castle. Everyone immediately concluded that the Mac Carthy Reaghs were planning to take the throne by force. Many of the assembled nobles were afraid for their lives and wished to flee and leave the throne to the Mac Carthy Reaghs. At this point, Dougal, who had so far been quiet, stood up and addressed his assembled clan. He comdemned the Mac Carthy Reaghs for propogating division within the clan and thus weakening the whole kingdom. He drew attention to the Normans, who had been able to conquer the Gaels only because the Gaels did not stand together and fought amongst themselves. “If we stand together,” he said, “if we stand behind our true and rightful King, no army in the world will be able to defeat us. If we stand together as Mac Carthys, as Gaels, then we can make our name one to be feared again, and our enemies will bow down before us.”
The shouts of agreement following Dougal's speech were disconcerting to the Mac Carthy Reaghs. They decided to leave the castle for the safety of their army, as they could see the clan beginning to turn against them. Meanwhile, the defense of Balycarbery was beginning to be organized. Many families sent out runners to muster their own armies, and Dougal took charge of turning the group of nobles into a proper garrison. By the time the Carbery army reached the castle walls, they were greeted by a volley of arrows from the castle walls. Dougal had found enough hunters from amongst the various Mac Carthys who were able to use a bow.
The seige of Balycarbery lasted for a week before the armies of Muskerry and Duhallow arrived to lift the seige. During this time, the Balycarberry agreement had been reached. Dougal was elected King of Desmond, while the boy Cormac was appointed as his Tanist (successor). The Mac Carthys had a King behind whom they could be united, and Dougal the Great came to power. Thus the Dougalite dynasty was founded and the Munster Renaissance began.
 
Chapter 2 - the Re-Conquest Begins

Chapter 2 – The Re-Conquest Begins
One of Dougal's first acts as King was to reorganize the military in order to prevent another war of succession. The fact that the Mac Carthy Reaghs had been able to muster a large enough army to challenge the crown was a problem that needed to be eliminated. Before Dougal's time, wars had been fought using mostly peasant conscripts raised by the various landowning houses. While the King held more lands than any one of lesser nobles, this was purely a difference of quantity rather than of quality. Enough of the lesser nobles together could still defeat the King.
Dougal, in his travels in France and England noted the crucial role that professional soldiers, mostly mercenaries, played in foreign armies, and decided that Desmond needed such an army of her own. A voyage to Scotland brought back a regiment of Gallogleigh infantry, and a voayge to Wales brought back a number of longbowmen. Rather than continually relying on foreign troops, Dougal settled these new recruits in land confiscated from the disgraced Mac Carth Reaghs and encouraged them to marry local women and raise their sons as soldiers.
Dougal knew that these new mercenaries would be expensive to maintain, and that their upkeep would require new sources of funds. While revenue from the confiscated Carbery lands, and new taxes could support some of that, Dougal decided that the army itself could be turned into a source of income. Knowing that the Norman Earl of Desmond would be a natural enemy, Dougal began sending his new army on regular raids into Norman territory for plunder. The peasants were no match for these small groups of well-disciplined soldiers, and the Norman Lords knew that the only way to stop such raids would be an all-out-war.
Thus the First War of Re-Conquest began in 1351 with the Earl of Desmond raising an army, and sending it marching straight for Balycarberry castle. The Norman army outnumbered Dougal's 3 to 1, but, aside from a number of armoured knights, was made up mostly of peasant conscripts. Dougal knew that if he could eliminate the knights, the rest of the army would dissolve into disorganization. Using knowledge of the mountainous terrain around Balycarberry to his advantage, he stationed longbowmen in defensible positions to fire upon the Norman army from a distance and from above. When horsemen were sent to chase down the archers, they were ambushed and eliminated one-by-one. After a few such ambushes, the Norman officers decided the best response to a rain of arrows was to retreat rather than try to engage the archers.
The constant advancing and then retreating of the Norman army greatly delayed their campaign, and the morale of their soldiers fell dramatically. The peasant conscripts were anxious that they had spent too much time away from their fields, and many deserted. As the Norman army started to come to the conclusion that it would be impossible to reach Balycarberry before winter, Dougal's army attacked. The Normans were caught by surprise, and as many of the exhausted peasants fled the battlefield, the knights moved to engage Dougal's infantry, only to find that the Galloglieghs would not scatter before a cavalry charge, and could adequately defend themselves even against heavy cavalry. The battle was a defeat, and the Norman knights withdrew to regroup and raise a new army over the winter.
In the spring of 1352 the Mac Carthy army began an offensive into Norman territory. This army consited not only of the professionals that had fought in the pervious years' campaign, but also a number of new peasant recruits, including a number who had deserted from the Norman army, and had been housed and fed by the Mac Carthys over the winter. The advance encountered little resistance and was able to march all the way to Cork without a real battle. Cork was soon beseiged, while the Normans were still busy trying to raise enough troops to match Dougal's army. The Normans had difficulty finding peasants willing to fight Dougal's army, which had acquired quite a reputation. Thus, only a month into the seige of Cork, the Earl of Desmond sued for peace.
The peace agreement handed over much of the southwest and northwest portions of the Earldom of Desmond to the Gaelic Kingdom of Desmond. While these were territories that the Norman Earl had often times had difficulty asserting control over, they added significantly to the amount of good farmland controlled by the Gaels. The Normans were only willing to give up this territory, however, in exchange for Dougal ceasing his raids into Norman territory. However, for Dougal, these raids would no longer be necessary as he now controlled enough land to support his army properly.
Even as this peace agreement was being negotiated, the war that would become the Second War of Reconquest had already begun. When Dairmaid O'Brien was crowned King of Thomond in 1350, he already had had his eye on the City of Limerick for many years already. With the Black Death decimating the population of the city, Dairmaid figured that the City's garisson was likely weakened, and the city could be returned to his dominion after a short seige. In 1352, after making military preparations, the army of Thomond marched on Limerick, and beseiged the city.
At the time, the City of Limerick was technically subject to the Earldom of Ormond, however, the Earldom itself was a vast territory stretching from Limerick to Kilkenney, and the Earl himself spent most of his time in the East. Thus, the City was mostly responsible for its own defence, and Diarmaid O'Brien was hoping that the seige could be won before reinforcements could arrive from Kilkenney or Dublin. Limerick was beseiged in August, and James Bulter, Earl of Ormond knew that he would not be able to dispatch a large enough army to lift the seige until spring. However, he knew that he had to make some response before winter, so he raised a small army in his Western territories and marched on Limerick.
The main part of Limerick is situated on King's Island in the River Shannon. The main part of the O'Brien forces were stationed on the North bank of the river, to be more easily resupplied from the North, while a smaller contigent had crossed the river upstream from the city in order to prevent resuplly of the garisson from the South. It was this Southern detachment that was targeted by the Ormond army. Coming from inland, Butler's army first secured all the bridges over the River Shannon, and then marched down the South Bank to engage the Southern detachment.
The battle on the South Bank was quick, as the Thomond army quickly admitted defeat, and were forced to withdraw to the West. The main force of the O'Brien army was unable to cross the river to reinforce the southern detachment, and thus the garrison at Limerick was resupplied and reinforced by Butler's forces. The Bridges were controlled by Ormond, and thus the O'Brien army was left only with control of the North Bank.
But, not all was lost for Thomond. The retreating southern detachment soon reached the territory of Dougal Mac Carthy. The Mac Carthy army, fresh from victory over the Earldom of Desmond was keen to fight again against what appeared to be a weakened foe. However, it took the length of winter for the army to prepare itself to fight again, and, early in spring 1353 the army marched again, this time heading North to the banks of the River Shannon.
But, by Spring, Butler had had a chance to raise his own army, and was prepared to meet Mac Carthy. The Ormond army was large, but Mac Carthy's army, reinforced by Thomond's southern detachment and many O'Brien troops which had been ferried over the Shannon during the course of the winter, was larger. Butler had the the advantage of cavalry, although, fighting a defensive position prevented him from taking full advantage of them. The battle was fierce and bloody, although Dougal came out on top in the end. Dougal's battle plan meant that Butler's forces were cut off between the Gaelic lines and the river, and that while the cavalry were able to break through the lines, the infantry were forced to retreat into the City of Limerick itself.
While forcing the retreating troops into the city strengthened the garisson, in the long run it was the beginning of the end for the seige itself. The granaries of Limerick had nearly a thousand more mouths to feed, and the influx of defeated troops lowered the morale of the defenders. By July 1353 the seige was over, and the City of Limerick surrendered to the combined forces of Mac Carthy and O'Brien.
With the surrender of Limerick, it became apparent that the forces of a single Norman Earl were no longer enough to contain the Gaels. James Butler knew that his forces alone were no match for the combined armies of Mac Carthy and O'Brien, but felt that if he was able to enlist the support of the Earl of Desmond and was able to call on reinforcements from England he could win in the future. Thus, he decided to make peace until the Norman armies could be rebuilt and reinforced. The western parts of the Earldom of Ormond were surrendered to the Gaels. O'Brien got the North Bank of the River Shannon and the City of Limerick proper, and Mac Carthy got all territories on the South Bank. Neither O'Brien nor Mac Carthy wanted to fight on, as both their armies had been weakened by the war. Thus, the Second War of Reconquest came to a conclusion.
 
Chapter 3 – Eire Reawakens

Chapter 3 – Eire Reawakens
The success of the Kingdoms of Thomond and Desmond during the Second War of Reconquest inspired the other Gaelic Kings to undertake their own campaigns agains the Normans. The Third War of Reconquest (1355-57) and the Fourth War of Reconquest (1359-1360) were fought in the North of Ireland, far from Mac Carthy and O'Brien's realms. It wasn't until the Fifth War of Reconquest that Munster was again the field of battle.
The Norman Lords, after centuries of spending little effort putting down native uprisings, suddenly found themselves overwhelmed by the Gaels. They called for reinforcements from England, although none came. The English at first didn't take these requests seriously, as the opinion of many was that there had been no native Irish Kings worthy of the name in centuries. By the time many became aware that the Gaels had become a real threat to Norman power, the English were busy in their Hundred Years' War with France and had no troops to spare.
In 1358, an assembly of the Norman Lords was called in Dublin. As it was apparent that no assistance was coming from England, the Earls of Ormond and Desmond were calling for an Army of Norman Ireland to be assembled to fight the Gaels wherever it was needed. While this plan initially met with much resistance from those Lords more loyal to England (as such an army operating independently from the King of England might undermine the King's authority), by 1362 co-operation between the various Lords on military matters had already begun. The Norman Lords pledged to defend each other if attacked, and pooled money to hire mercenaries to provide the backbone for their new combined force.
The comparative peace of the 1360's was largely brought about by this development. The Gaels, while now controlling more land than the Normans, were divided and disorganized in comparison, and no one King or Prince could raise a large enough army on his own to defeat the combined Norman force. Dougal Mac Carthy and others attempted to foster greater co-operation and co-ordination, although this was met with resistance by many smaller chiefs who were worried about becoming an insignificant part of a larger state.
One of the few lasting alliances between the Gaelic Kingdoms was that between the Mac Carthies of Desmond, the O'Neills of Tyrone, and the O'Briens of Thomond. The Kingdoms of Thomond and Desmond had already been working closely together since the Second War of Reconquest, and the O'Neills were a natural ally as they shared a common enemy in the Normans, but were located far enough away that they had no territory to contest with Desmond or Thomond. The first talks between the three Kings began in 1361, and by 1368 they had solidified into a solid alliance.
By 1370 the armies of Desmond and Thomond were thirsting for conquest. During the years of peace, Dougal Mac Carthy had become unpopular amongst his clan for spending precious land and money supporting a professional army which hadn't seen battle in almost two decades. After having lost many of his precious Gallogleighs in the Second War of Reconquest, Dougal had been waiting for the sons of his first generation Gallogleighs to be old enough to fight, and had spent the time training nobles and peasants alike in the basic skills of war. He knew that to defeat the Norman alliance without losing his precious soldiers would require superiority in both quality and quantity.
Thomond, while not investing as heavily in their military, was thirsting for battle more than Desmond. Their gains from the Second War of Reconquest had largely been limited to the environs of the City of Limerick, and while control of the city and its trade had increased the wealth of the O'Briens, they were still hungry for territorial expansion. Desmond too desired expansion, mostly to connect their exclave south of Limerick to the rest of the Kingdom. Thus in 1372, the time for war was at hand.
 
Chapter 4 – The Great War

Chapter 4 – The Great War
The Mac Carthy - O'Brien – O'Neill alliance had little hope of combining their forces into a single army. While the Desmond and Thomond armies could easily meet up and merge, the army of Tyrone was based in the opposite corner of the island. Thus, if the Norman armies could unite, they could defeat the Northern and Southern Gaelic armies in turn. Thus, the Gaels knew that their main hope lay in keeping the Norman armies divided. The mercenary force responsible to the Lordship of Ireland as a whole was based in Dublin, while the two strongest individual Norman armies – those of the Earls of Desmond and Ormond (the two Norman Lords who took the Gaelic threat most seriously), were based in the South. The Gaels thus needed a plan to keep the Dublin army engaged with Tyrone while Mac Carthy and O'Brien could fight the Earls' armies.
The war opened with Mac Carthy and O'Brien's armies meeting up near Limerick and marching South and East in the general direction of Waterford. The goal was to place the Gaelic armies between the Earldoms of Desmond and Ormond, dividing the Norman forces, and forcing them to attack the Gaels individually rather than as a combined force. The first goal was to beseige and capture the castle of Cahir, thus gaining control of the center. The first months of the campaign went as planned, and the castle was beseiged in June 1372.
The Norman Earls heard news of the grand army forming up near Limerick, and guessed their intent. The Earl of Kildare, as Lord Deputy of Ireland, took charge of the Dublin army and began marching south to meet up with Butler's army in Kilkenny. However, as the Lordship's army reached Kilkenny, O'Neill's phase of the war began, the army of Tyrone, having amassed in the North, marched straight for Dublin.
This threat to Dublin split the army amassed at Kilkenny. Kildare, whose priority was to defend the capital at all costs, insisted on returning to Dublin to confront O'Neill, while Butler insisted on relieving the garrison in Cahir. However, the Dublin army wasn't large enough to confront O'Neill on its own, while Butler's army knew that it couldn't hope to match the combined forces of Mac Carthy and O'Neill. In the end, the army decided to split in two. Kildare was given the larger part of the army – just enough to defeat O'Neill – and returned towards Dublin, hoping to pick up new recruits along the way. Butler was given the smaller detachment. Knowing that he didn't have enough troops to confront the combined Mac Carthy/O'Brien army on his own, Butler hoped to combine his forces with those of FitzGerald, and confront the Gaels together.
Thus it was that in early August 1372 the armies beseiging Cahir heard news of Butler's army heading South towards Waterford. They knew they could not make Waterford before Butler, but that the coast to the South would be the best place to meet Ormond's army. North of Dungarvan, the hills come very close to the shore, leaving only a small corridor through which Butler's army would have to pass. Butler's army made good time, but so did Mac Carthy, who was able to descend out of the hills and surround Butler's army, trapping them against the sea. The Battle of Dungarvan was devastating for Butler's army, with two thirds of Butler's army as casualties. However, FitzGerald's army had also been marching for Dungarvan, and arrived only a few hours after the battle had begun. Once FitzGerald engaged Mac Carthy's right flank, the Gaelic lines to the West began to collapse, and Butler's army was able to retreat through the Gaelic lines to join up with FitzGerald.
In the North, things had not gone quite as well for O'Neill. A battle between Kildare's and O'Neill's armies had been fought outside Dublic, with Kildare coming out on top, although O'Neill was able to retreat before suffering too many casualties. Thus the seige of Dublin was lifted, and Kildare was faced with the decision either to pursue the retreating Army of Tyrone, or to return to the South to support Butler and FitzGerald. He decided to pursue a mixed strategy, dividing his force again, sending half of it North and half South. The Northern force engaged O'Neill again near Drogheda, and were surprised by the number of new recruits O'Neill had been able to obtain from the local Irish population. O'Neill's forces won this battle, but suffered a Pyrrhic victory, having lost enough troops that further offensives into Norman territory were no longer feasible. After the Battle of Drogheda, war in the North was fairly uneventful. Minor clashes took place between the Norman and Gaelic armies, but no decisive battles or seige victories took place.
In the South, both armies were beginning to realize they were exhausted. Mac Carthy's army pursued the Norman army in a fighting retreat to the walls of Cork, then continued West to withdraw to secure territory. Operating a large army so far from Gaelic-held lands had put too much strain on Mac Carthy's supply train, and the troops were in need of some rest. The seige of Cahir was won by O'Brien in October, but Kildare's southern army soon were approaching the castle, and the subsequent battle forced a retreat by O'Brien's army, except for a small garrison left to defend Cahir. The Battle of Cahir was the last of the 1372 campaign season, and all armies spent the next few months recuperating and rebuilding for a Spring offensive.
The 1373 campaign season opened with both Mac Carthy and O'Brien occupying undefended territory rather than engaging the enemy's forces. They had heard of the success O'Neill had had in recruiting local Irish peasants to fight against their Norman overlords, and use such new recruits to build up their armies before making battle. O'Brien's armies marched North and East from Limerick occupying the shores of Lough Derg, and capturing Roscrea. Mac Carthy's army made a tour of the Northern FitzGerald lands, from Tralee to Croom before heading South towards Cork.
The Normans took advantage of this lack of engagement to retake Cahir. A combined force of Butler's remaining troops who had wintered in Cork and Kildare's who had wintered in Kilkenny retook the castle after a much shorter second seige. FitzGerald decided to keep his army in Cork to defend against an attack by Mac Carthy. However, this attack on Cork never came. Hearing about the fall of Cahir, Mac Carthy decided it was time to engage the Normans on the field. Meeting up with O'Brien's army at Cashel, the Gaelic armies engaged the Normans again to fight the Second Battle of Cahir in June 1373. This battle went much better than the first for the Gaels. The Gaels were victorious and the Normans were forced to abandon the castle which by now was hardly defensible after two successive seiges. This time, when Kildare insisted on withdrawing to Kilkenny rather than joining up with FitzGerald's army, Butler agreed.
Having divided the Norman forces again, Mac Carthy decided the time was ripe for an assault on Cork in August 1373. Not wanting a repeat of the starvation that had occurred in Limerick, FitzGerald marched his army out of the city and took position on a hill outside to engage the enemy. While Mac Carthy had left O'Brien's army behind to guard against a counterattack from Kilkenny, FitzGerald was still outnumbered. FitzGerald's goal was to force enough casualties that Mac Carthy would be forced to hold off on a seige until reinforcements could arrive from Kilkenny. While the battle was bloody, and Mac Carthy did lose a large part of his army, but FitzGerald himself was killed during the battle.
Gerald FitzGerald was succeeded by his son John. John FitzGerald had a pessimistic opinion of the ongoing war, and decided that it was time to sue for peace. Just as the seige of Cork was beginning, John FitzGerald was already offering peace to Mac Carthy. John agreed to become Mac Carthy's vassal in exchange for retaining control over Cork and its environs. Mac Carthy agreed, as he felt this was an opportunity to bring the war to a quicker conclusion. Under the terms of the peace treaty, Mac Carthy received most of the North and Northeast of the Earldom of Desmond down to Dungarvan. FitzGerald was retitled the Earl of Cork, and was subject to the King of Desmond. O'Brien received the North coast of the former Earldom.
Once they heard of John FitzGerald's capitulation, Butler and Kildare in Kilkenny decided that they were unable to fight on. They gave up all territory under current Gaelic control in exchange for peace. Really this was a loss for Butler much more than Kildare. Butler still controlled the key cities of Kilkenny and Waterford, although much of his territory in the North was lost to O'Brien. O'Neill gained control of Ulster and began referring to himself as King of Ulster rather than just King of Tyrone. While the Normans still controlled much of the East of Eire, their power was now clearly second to that of the Gaelic Kings.
 
Some Maps to take a look at

I know these aren't particularly good quality.... These are the first ones I've made....

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