Forbidden History - The Medieval Warriors of Ireland | St. Patrick’s Day Special

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

For this St Patrick’s Day special episode of Forbidden History, archaeologist Tim Sutherland travels to Ireland to explore the reality behind one of the country’s most famous medieval battles. With insights from historians, archaeologists and weapons experts, the episode reveals how new research and archaeology are shedding fresh light on the conflict. Cast List: John Cronin: Writer and Historian Seán Duffy:  Historian, Trinity College Dublin (Prof. Seán Duffy) Rodney French: Coppersmith Andrew Halpin:  Historian and Weapons Expert (Dr. Andrew Halpin) Frank Kearney: Galway County Council Paul Macdonald: Swordmaker, Macdonald Armouries David Nicolle: Military Historian (Dr. David Nicolle) Boyd Rankin: Armourer Damien Shiels: Archaeologist, Rubicon Heritage Tim Sutherland: Archaeologist, University of York Eric Meyers: Narrator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. We're an independent podcast, and advertisements help keep us going. Ads are automatically placed and not specifically chosen or endorsed by us, unless read by me the host. Thanks for supporting the show. An ancient land. Echoes of a distant past. Traces of a warlike culture. They spend their life killing people and engaged in warfare.

A profession of arms, a martial life born to serve. The Gallaglass, they were terrifying. Warriors who for centuries dominated with armor, axe and sword. Be swift, be brave, be sure on your feet. An inspirational past. Medieval Ireland, it's the land of legend. Serving lords and kings and the names of their fathers, the warlords of Ireland, the galloglass.

The gallaglass were among the most fearsome of all warriors of the Middle Ages. Their appearance alone was awe-inspiring, designed to strike terror in their enemy's hearts. On the battlefield, they were formidable. The prized elite force, the last line of defense, when there was no one else to turn to. It was an ancestral calling, a lifetime of tradition, and training. Ritual and preparation for the one great fight which might one day be their last. Their world is all but lost to us now, veiled in myth, almost entirely lost to written records. Now we journey back through the centuries, examining the clues that remain, as well as new

research, breaking new ground, bringing light to the lost way of life of the world of the gallaglass. In the of medieval Ireland. Medieval Ireland to us now is like an alien landscape in many ways. It's very different to us, the Gaelic culture that a lot of places had. Yet we see it everywhere, it's something that we touch and experience in our wider landscape. I suppose what I love about medieval Ireland is its complexity. I think when people look back on the Middle Ages, they think it is all simple and it's all black and white. But medieval Ireland, it's less than it's less than it's less than.

its layers and its complexities, they are continually unfolding before our eyes and, you know, it's a wonderful, rich tapestry. Medieval Ireland, really, it's the land of legend. It's so rich in its culture. The history of Ireland is rich and varied, yet it's not as well known as Britain or other parts of Western Europe. few places in Europe that are as evocative as Ireland in the medieval period. It's a landscape that's almost still mystical in that it's not really well known about, it's right on the periphery of Europe, and of course the archaeology is usually seen as the Celtic period. It's the peripheral archaeology as well. Written accounts are rare, so it's largely through this archaeology that we know we know

what we know of Ireland's past. The evidence tells of strongly defined cultures, from the bronze and iron ages, even into the early Christian era. Despite the great cloak of the so-called dark age, these were the times of Gaelic myths and heroes. But it was the 10th century and the coming of the Norsemen that brought the greatest change. Viking Dublin was a major European settlement, prosperous trading port. A century and a half later, after their conquest of England, it was the Normans who invaded, building hundreds of castles and cathedrals.

Over the following two centuries, Ireland was divided between Anglo-Norman Irish and Gaelic Irish. Families and dynasties evolved on each side, traditional rivalries that would last hundreds of years. Even to those familiar with the story of medieval youths, Europe, the Gallaglass are relatively little known, yet their fearsome reputation holds strong. The Gallaglass is a very interesting form of troops from this later medieval period. Seems to be a development of a much earlier, perhaps Viking idea, which survives in certain areas,

most notably part of Northern Ireland and the west of Scotland, probably of very much localized significance, but then quite suddenly emerges on a wider stage, as it were, and axe-armed, pretty heavily armored infantry, and big, they seem to be big fellas. They had a remarkable impact. Trinity College Dublin is Ireland's oldest university. It's home to the Book of Kells and many conferences on the story of medieval Ireland. Professor Sean Duffy is an expert on this period. He's devoted much time to studying the Gallaglass

and their place in native Irish society. If you're a student of medieval Ireland and you're interested in what makes medieval Ireland tick, you have to learn about gallo glass, and you have to factor them into your calculations because they're there, they begin to arrive into Ireland in the 13th century. The late 12th hundreds, a turbulent time in the turbulent history of Ireland and the British Isles.

But where did the Gallaglass come from? The word galaglass comes from the Irish words Galooglach. Usually when you see that written down, it's translated as foreign warrior because the assumption is these people came to Ireland and they were foreigners. But in fact, the Irish for the Hebrides is the Inche-Gal. And Gaul Oglok means a warrior

or a vassal, in fact, a military vassal, from the Hebrides, and in the Middle Ages, the Hebrides and most of Scotland, was considered by the Irish to be part of the greater Irish world. Ireland and Scotland, particularly the Western Isles, had both been colonized by Scandinavian Vikings through the early Middle Ages. Now the wars between Norman England and Scotland, the wars of independence, caused great upheaval.

It might be to do with conditions in the Highlands of Scotland, in the highlands of Scotland, where there's a lot of political turbulence, and especially in the period of the Anglo-Scottish war, the time of William Wallace and Robert Bruce and so on, where, you know, factions within Scotland took sides, some lost out, and they had to find a new home for themselves, and they looked to Ireland. Scots, dispossessed, or just in search of new homelands?

The kings of Ireland, losing their struggle against the Anglo-Norman invaders, welcome these foreign warriors. Irish kings, you know, they needed a new weapon in the armory if they were trying to oppose the Anglo-Normans, and the gallows provided the perfect solution to their problems. And in a sense, you can say, therefore, that they helped to tilt the balance in Ireland in favour of the native Irish. The gallo-glass were the levellers of 13th century Ireland.

They took root and dominated Irish. battlefields of the medieval age, battlefields and also the politics of the Irish kings who employed them. They weren't mercenaries in the sense that we tend to use the term as people whose loyalty was fickle, who could be bought and sold, and who did what their master's bidding.

If you look at the activities of gallows throughout the ages in Ireland, they are very closely aligned with the political factions that exist in the country. Generations of Gallaglass served the same political dynasties for hundreds of years. Name and honor were everything. You don't hear, hardly ever hear certainly, of them betraying the trust of their employer, selling their services off to the highest bidder.

They are part of the factional politics of Galick Island and indeed of Anglo Ireland. Because after the Galo Glass have been in Ireland for 150,000, or 200 years, they are not just being hired by Irish lords, but by the descendants of the Anglo-Norman invaders of Ireland, these Anglo-Irish lords, and they work for them as well. So eventually, by the end of the Middle Ages, they have filtered all the way through the country. External commentators who saw them emphasized how you couldn't compete successfully in Irish warfare unless you had a troop of gallaglass at your disposal. Yet, as with so many aspects of the medieval world,

the real details of the gallaglass are mostly lost to us today because they left almost no written records of their own. That's why archaeologist Tim Sutherland has come to Ireland to find out more. To a certain degree, Ireland's a bit of a time capsule. You know, you drive across the landscape and you can see things in the landscape that have remained probably unchanged for hundreds or thousands of years. There may only be a few documents, but the gallo glass were encapsulated in another kind of historical record. Our mental image of a gallo glass comes from images of them that have survived, for the most part, on memorial stones.

There are Irish kings whose graves are adorned by figure sculpture. In some instances, this records gallo glass. And you might think it's an odd thing to have on a grave because it's showing soldiers in their use. in their uniforms. But if you think of the purpose of the effigy in question, is to show the status of the king. And if you show him as being a man who had gallaglass in his pay, you're adding to his status in the eyes of his community.

We'll be right back after the break. At Connott in Central Ireland, Ross Common Abbey was founded in the 13th century by King Phelham O'Connor, who was buried here in 1265. The carved front of the tomb shows the figures of eight gallaglass. Their appearance is striking, unlike any other medieval effigies. These aren't knights in suits of armor as we're used to. They're almost figures from fantasy.

They wear the archetypal armor that remain the same for centuries, long male coat, bassinet helm, and each carries a sword or great axe. Their gaunt, staring, foreboding. This martial bearing was a vital part of the gallaglass ethos

and was reflected in every aspect of his appearance. The hair, short-cropped with a thick fringe or forelock, the glib, marked him out as an outlaw to the later English tutors. His dress and equipment too were ritualized. The manner in which they were worn or carried hardly changed across centuries. The basic garment was a linen shirt or tunic dyed with saffron, called in Gaelic the Lena. It could be made from many yards of material, with voluminous folds and sleeves for warmth. The gallo-glass went either bare-legged, red-shanked, or, or, you know, and, and, you know,

wore narrow woolen hose and leather shoes. Over the lena, he wore a knee-length arming jacket, the cotton, quilted and waxed by the gambeson, or acaton, of a medieval European man at arms. Perhaps the most expensive and prestigious part of the harness was the mail shirt. It was made of thousands of riveted iron links

and worn long to protect the thighs. This was called the Lurik. the lurik. It was fitted and belted, so the wearer wouldn't be slowed down or hindered in combat. A male collar or standard, the Skabal. The Schkian, like the Scottish Skion-Doo, was the sidearm, inscribed an individual to every man. But the other symbolic weapon, like any medieval knightly figure, is the sword. Helmets could be simple iron caps or skulls, or more elaborate conical bassinets, sometimes with a peak, called the kaffar. The great two-handed axe, the Tua, was the symbol of gallo-glass power, the terror weapon on the battlefield, for whirling

and smashing at armored foes. The Ross Common Tomb and others across Ireland are displayed with swords, and like the other aspects of the gallo-glass, they're clearly different to convey conventional European medieval blades. But they are similar to those from another nation. Scottish broadsorts, like the great two-handed claymore, bear some resemblance to Gallaglass swords, perhaps a relic of the shared heritage of the two cultures. Yet the swords associated with gallaglass are smaller than Claymores.

They're often finer, single-hander's, or hand-and-a-haves, called half-langs. Edinburgh swordmaker Paul MacDonald is more than familiar with Scottish blades. Now he's come to Dublin to learn about their Irish cousins. Here Paul, late medieval swords and some of them you might be familiar with. So the National Museum of Ireland has probably the largest collection of gallow glass weapons anywhere in the world really, certainly anywhere in Ireland. These were all found in Ireland but a lot of them could as easily have been found in Scotland. The gallow glass and his weapons are usually thought of as being overbearing for cleaving,

anything but subtle. The classic picture of gallaglass that we get from the historical sources is of big men, big strong men wielding big swords, making a big flourish. And to some extent the archaeology, the actual surviving weapons, bears that out. We do have a number of big, heavy swords. But the interesting thing is that we also have a... have many swords of the same type, but that seem to point to something different

because they're smaller, they're single-handed swords, and they're lighter. Paul is intrigued by this. He suspects that there may have been more to the Gallaglass's martial skills than mere brawn. There might be a clue to this in a common feature seen in many of the museum's swords. Medieval blades have a weighted pommel

at the end of the grip. It's a counterbalance to the weight of the blade, and it makes the weapon easier to wield. Yet many swords here have either no pommel remaining, or they're hollow, with no weighting at all. There are, I've seen evidence of the hollow pommels and certainly in Scotland, Scottish and high-land swords especially. It's been suggested, certainly, yeah, were the lead filled or such.

Yes. And there's one that I know of that's been x-rayed and found to be about three-quarter filled with lead. It will be the first time ever that anyone's attempted to work out how it was made. It's an interesting form, pommel, I think, really only seen on swords of this type of this period. To my eye, I'm already thinking about how this plays in the hand, how this works in the hand. A light pommel, to me would suggest a light blade, a light fast blade. Yes, a really effective cutting blade.

Be swift in the hand. I would imagine these were pretty fierce and fast swift planes in their day. Right, right. To my eyes, this is what this is already saying, but there's really only one way to know for sure. Sure, sure. Paul carefully records the sword. Though it's not survived completely intact,

he'll take these measurements back to Edinburgh to begin the recreation. The potent image of the gallaglass is prevalent throughout Irish folklore and beyond. Gallaglass appear in traditional art and literature, even in Shakespeare. And now these archetypal Irish warriors have a continued influence in film and television. Tim's come to Bally James Duff in County Cavan.

He's here to meet Irish film industry armourer and prop maker, Boyd Rankin. So how long have you been doing this then? Oh, about 20 years now. I am by profession a retired pharmacist. I like to say I'm a retired drug dealer, but people look at you. I have a love of history, but more importantly, I have a love of making things. And history has provided the inspiration for the things that I make.

I make weapons for film, for television, for museums, for heritage centres. Not just weapons, but we make other sort of props and everything and anything. In fact, in some ways, a jack of all trades. When we're working in film and television, things like that, sometimes you want something a little bit oddball, something unusual. And that's where I've drawn the inspiration from Irish history. I'm also, you know, I'm a wee boy grown up. I like all the things that go buying.

I like bows and arrows. I like swords. So the whole thing has come together where I am today. So how does the medieval gallaglass material inspire your work? Well in fact actually thinking about it, Irish is so unique style of dress if you go back into native Irish and Irish weapons, some of the weapons that were used are not used anywhere else. And if we think of one particular very famous type of Irish warrior was the Gallaglass.

Right. I think of it the vision people have these big, hefty, strong men. So from what you say, it appears in. you're more rooted in the reality than the sort of fantasy side of this weapons and warfare. They take something like Game of Thrones. We were working with various characters and various styles of weapons and then there was the mountain Gregor Clegane and he was big and he had have a big impressive weapon and when I saw the cast member in his costume he just to me it was Gallaglass it was huge so immediately I thought I'll break your

Right. The Gallaglass picture. The Gallaglass, the Irishman abroad. And so I made a very large Gallaglass sword, ringhilt sword. The other thing that, well, I'm Irish, it's an American series being filmed in Ireland, and it was just that little stamp of Irishness into it as well. A gallaglass's days were taken up in preparation for what he could expect to face in the service of his client lord. warriors might be quartered in a village or throughout a local area, depending on their duties.

For battles, they were usually grouped together en masse. When we think of a galadalus, if you hear of an army that has a troop of 80 galodlas, you have to double or triple or quadruple that because each galodlas soldier had two or three boys who carried his weapons for him. Such was the, you know, such were the weight of the male coats that he carried with him, and the weight of the weaponry that he had with them, that they had a couple of these gillies or servant boys who did that. They were probably apprentice-apprentice Gallaglass themselves.

Each fully-fledged fighter would be attended by at least one or two of these novices, sometimes known as Kern. Like squires to a knight, they were part of the Gallaglass's team, fetching and carrying and maintaining his armor and weaponry. But most importantly, they had to learn how to fight. Every day they'd train in the martial skills required of a gallowglass. Sparring both unarmed and armed,

only when they had mastered wooden weapons would they be allowed to train with steel, with swords, or the axe. Not much else is known about the hard lives these men lived. Even little things like how they were paid, and they were probably paid in cattle, which was the currency of Gaelic Island in the later Middle Ages.

But how those cattle were then converted to an income for them, were they slaughtered, were they brought home? We don't know how the mechanics of that on the ground. We know that they were hired for a three-month period at a time. The reward was given to the commander and then he presumably fed his troops

and maintained his troops. But the small print of it, it's completely lost to us at this remove. The Gallaglass prospect had to learn the skills of patrolling and moving through the landscape as important as fighting itself. Hunting was a natural means of training for this. They would come to know the use of the bow or the light javelin, traditionally favored by Gallaglass.

All vital skills for much of the military activity of the Gallaglass centered on raiding, or counter raiding. For the most part, these are cattle raids. And if I march into your territory, I steal your cattle, and I make off with them, then you're going to come after me. And so the really important positions in the army

will be in the rear. That's the place of honor in an army. And that's where Gallo Glass were. So the Irish Kern, they were in the vanguard making off of the cattle. They weren't up to much else. That was their function. It was the Gallo Glass who came.

came behind then guarding the rear. On the battlefield, it was the same. These were guys who kind of stood their ground, you know, one at a time. We know that they were very often used as the last line of defense. They were brought in maybe if things were going wrong and you needed to withdraw your forces.

The Gallaglass are the guys who will make a stand when everyone else can get to safety behind them. It was a role whose demands few would envy. It hardly mattered. This was a warrior cast, open only to the elite. It's important to remember about gallows that a person couldn't decide to become a gallo glass. You couldn't apply for the job of being a gallo glass and train. You were a gallaudlas because your father was a galardlaus,

whose grandfather was a great-grandfather. These are hereditary dynastries. We have to think of them like that. But to that extent, they are very typical of Gaelic. Society in Ireland because everything was hereditary. You know, there were hereditary families of lawyers, hereditary medical families, and indeed hereditary clerical families. You became a priest because your father was a priest and your grandfather was a priest. So they operated within the structures of Gaelic society. Just as the calling of Gallowglass was handed down through generations,

so were the bitter rivalries and feuds between clan, tribe or family. Old school scores to be settled when the time came. As the Middle Ages were on, the gallows are found all over Ireland, and they're not just confined to the Gaelic Lords, they work for in the employ of the English Lords of Ireland as well. A classic instance of that, for example, occurs with the Great Battle of Nocteau, the start of the 16th century. Fought on the 19th of August 1504, this was the last

and the largest medieval battle in Ireland. Tim's here to work with Irish archaeologist, Damien Shields. They're planning a geophysics survey. But first, they have to select which area to target. Frank Kearney and John J. Cronin are on hand to lend their historical and local knowledge. When I turned up here, as someone who had an MA in history, I look into the history of the local area

and suddenly discovered that the biggest gallaglass battle in Britain or Ireland took place on this hill right beside it and everybody knew about it except me. For me, I was always looking down at the top of Noctaw Hill from once the day I was born because it was outside the back door. And I suppose sometimes people around the hill of Noctaw have sort of expressed their, I suppose, dissatisfaction for the want of a better word that it has never taken its place in Irish history that many people sort of feel it should have because it certainly was one of the single bloodiest battles that took place on one particular day, you know, in the case of Irish history.

This battle is on a scale that was not seen in Ireland before 15 and 4 and would not be seen in Ireland again until the late 17th century. Nocto was a meeting point between the old and the new, the end of the medieval era, and the dawning of the post-medieval. There's very few battles in Irish history

Where you have such an amalgamation of people from all over the country and old English, Irish. There's a real hot touch of what Ireland had to offer at that period. You have Gaelic Irish and Old English on one side fighting Gaelic Irish and Old English on the other. In one sense, this is a contest between two of Ireland's great lords. They align on either side their traditional allies. So both of them have native Irish allies fighting for them. and those native Irish allies in turn, of course, have their gallows'-glass forces. So there are gallows forces fighting on both sides in that battle.

You have a real mix of the type of troop types that you could encounter. You have things that you might call classically English weaponry, like the Old English, had billmen, they had archers, but then we have the Gaelic Irish who have things like the Gallo-glass. They have different types of archers, different types of cavalry between the Gaelic Irish and the Old English. So this real melting pot of military traditions coming together on the hill. Backing up the documentary sources, the local evidence is encouraging. All of the tradition and folklore and everything that has been handed down has been that the battle did start at this particular site on this side of the hill of Not Doe,

and that it had literally went around the hill all day. There's a lot to build the case for an initial geophysical survey. But Irish law is stricter than many countries when it comes to the protection of historic battle. battlefields. If there is weaponry on the site, the law in Ireland would state that it is the property of the state. So there are strict rules surrounding the excavation of archaeological objects and the ownership of archaeological objects.

So what would be required is a well thought out research project with proper archaeological supervision. We're not talking just about treasure hunting or picking up nice objects. we actually want to get some knowledge and find out something about the gallaglass and about the battle. It will take some time for permission to come through. Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Paul MacDonald has started work recreating the gallo-glass sword. We are only through rediscovering this knowledge through close study of the original weapons. The sword makers were known to be the men that used earth, air, fire and water and commanded those elements and made them into a functional form that you could live or die by.

Working from the dimensions of the original, he estimates the full length of the blade and draws out its profile. Blades were known to break in battle through earnest use. These are men who were fighting for their lives. Put every effort into that. Broken blades would certainly be a result of that kind of action. He's already crafted the components of the sword's unusual hollow pommel. The pommel is hollow on the original and there's no evidence of it being lead filled or such. The only reason that a pommel would be hollow would be if you already had a light and fast blade. And some of the early blades really surprises in terms of the technology, the blade technology, the steel-making technology, that they were capable of in these days.

The original pommel had the remains of the brazing inside it. This is where the iron components were joined together. For this process, Paul uses another skilled local artisan. Lonsdale and Dutch are one of the last coppersmiths in Scotland using traditional sheet metal working techniques and tools. So you've been in business here for a while? Yes, the shops have been here since 1813, so it's just over 200 years old. Lots of the tools are around about 100 to 150 years old.

Braising is similar to soldering, only it requires a much higher temperature, using molten brass as the binding component. Then, back at McDonald Armouries, it's time for what Paul spends most of his working life doing. The Grind. We'll be right back after the break. It's taken several months, but full permission has been granted. So it's now time for the first ever survey of a medieval battlefield in Ireland to get underway.

Damien has secured approval to survey two large fields on the north-facing slope of Nocto Hill. And at least the field is a lot drier up here. Because down there it's just like a bog. So it's quite well-drained. it's quite firm on the ground. So, hopefully. No, it's perfect condition.

Yeah, it's great. Around 10,000 men came face to face somewhere on the field. Casualties are thought to have numbered between 1 and 3,000 killed, many more wounded. It was the bloodiest day in centuries. But over 600 years, the landscape has changed. The whole landscape has been subdivided into rectangular, And before that, the whole landscape would have been presumably

have been open or mostly open. And in that case, we're talking about a very large area of moorland. There would be very few things in that moorland. There might have been a few enclosures for cattle pens or even enclosures for where people lived. So we would need to sort of peel everything away and see what was here in the late medieval, early post-medieval period. For Damien and Tim, it's all slowly started.

all slowly starting to make sense. We know that there was one army located on the top of the hill waiting for the other to approach it. So if you were going to be coming up here, you have the slope behind you. It's an absolutely ideal location from a military perspective, the impact of the charge and everything that you'd be looking for. So yeah, the big test will be whether we actually find evidence from it now in the survey results. It's the upland area for what is an extensive area of marsh and bogland around it. And so this is one of the places you would

choose to fight a battle in an open area of Moorland on firmer ground and on the lower ground below us. Wherever they were on the hill, it didn't matter. Gallaglass on both sides, harboring bitter rivalries generations old, sought each other out. Oaths were proclaimed, names were called out, blades were crossed. When the geophysics data is processed, Tim and Damien, consider the results. They haven't found an obvious medieval wall lurking just under the surface, but the good news is that they think they found a relic boundary, the shadow of an ancient division in the

landscape, which might have been marked out as a boundary in medieval times. That boundary continued through into the next field, yet we know that it doesn't appear that way by the middle of the 19th century. that boundary predates by one, two, maybe into the 16th century. And it used to be a lot straight to going across the landscape. It really raises the potential because it does appear to continue straight originally on the geophysics, that it could be a medieval boundary originally, which, you know, it's a possibility. And if so, there is a fair chance that it might have been on the battlefields on the day.

Yeah, in which case, the burning question, obviously, is this the boundary we're looking for? So we know that it's an early boundary and we know that the spherous material associated with it. Yeah. Our geophysical survey has really, I think, produced evidence exactly what we would have wanted. We've known that the key topographical feature on top of this hill was a low wall that was a key landscape feature during the battle. We have evidence here now for relict field boundaries that could well be medieval in date. and there's no reason why they may not be medieval in origins. Now, of course, it will take further investigation for us to say,

are these associated with the battle, are they contemporary with it? But lots of exciting questions, and I think it's definitely a real harbinger of things to come for what we can do on this site. There's a real potential here for us to find something significant relating to the Battle of Nocto. Damien and his team will be back to continue the work they've begun at Nocto. At McDonald Armory's, Paul has completed grinding the gallo-glass blade. He adds the finishing touch by hand, bringing a keen sharpness to the sword's edge using a stone.

The final stage is to attach the sword's unique hollow pommel. Process of making the sword has been eye-opening for Paul, not just on what the original sword must have been like and how it was used, but also about what it meant to be a swordsman in medieval times, Scottish, Irish or otherwise, what it meant when your life was only worth what your skill with your steel bought. This sword has provided a genuine insight into the martial culture of this time. The hollow pommel is the form is necessary for the grip.

It really compresses the four fingers in to a very tight and secure grip, which for a sword this light and fast is exactly what you need. The traditional image of the gallaglass is of big warriors, whirling great swords. But this blade represents something more refined. It too speaks also of lethal effectiveness on the battlefield, yet born of finesse rather than brute force. And really it's been an exercise in minimalism. Minimalism in terms of the blade weight, the hilt, there's not much steel here,

the grip and the pommel, the hollow pommel. the hollow poll. So this overall results in a sword that is just just a tiny shade over a pound and a half an overall weight in the hand. Really light and fast. A fighter's culture, with form and custom to its martial arts, a way of life that existed for hundreds of years. With the end of the medieval era, the standards of society changed around them.

days were numbered, but the gallows remained the same to the end. We have to remember about gallow glass that these people could quite happily accommodate the fact that they spend their life killing people and engaged in

warfare. I mean if every person in the Middle Ages was denied the possibility of going to heaven because he had fought a battle at some point, heaven would be deserted. centuries of warrior tradition down through the ages. The bloody heritage not only of Nocto, but many more forgotten hillsides of medieval Ireland.

We are standing on ground where people fought, you know, fought to death because this was a battle where apparently there was a decision made that there would be no surrender and every single one of the people who lost their lives all along the hill here. You know, I mean, they all have. families and the had loved ones they never saw again, but that's something they just tend to forget when it comes to a battle. Thanks for exploring the past with us today.

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