Did Gallowglass really halt the Norman conquest of Ireland?
I’ve read a couple places (most notably the Osprey Gallowglass book) that the introduction of gallowglass mercenaries in the 13th century reshaped Irish warfare by giving Irish lords an answer to Norman shock tactics and that this change in dynamic was a major contributing factor to Gaelic Ireland’s ability to halt English/Norman advances in Ireland.
It’s a cool idea, but the Osprey book is a bit vague on details and it left me with more questions than it answered.
-What evidence do we have that gallowglass had that impact? Are there records of battles and skirmishes (I know Irish warfare in the period involved a lot of raiding and small scale stuff) where gallowglass proved decisive against the Anglo-Normans?
-What was special about gallowglass in the 13th-15th centuries? The idea of maille-clad warriors with double-handed axes wouldn’t have been a new concept for either the Irish or Anglo-Normans, since it had been a feature of Viking and later Anglo-Saxon warfare fir several centuries prior to the introduction of gallowglass. Why didn’t the Irish adopt it much sooner?
-If gallowglass were especially effective against Norman tactics in Ireland, why was that? Norman armies defeated Anglo-Saxon housecarls and Byzantine Varangian guardsmen, so it’s not like they didn’t know how to deal with armored axemen in other contexts.