Battle of Knockdoe

Date	19 August 1504
Location	Knockdoe, Lackagh, Galway, Ireland
Result	Earl of Kildare victorious

Belligerents

The Clanricarde, Ó Briain and MacNamara of Thomond, Ó Carroll of Ely, Ó Kennedy of Ormond, O'Briens of Ara, plus several Gallowglass units.

Earl of Kildare, Ó Donnell of Tír Conaill, O Connor Roe MacDermot of

Commanders and leaders

Ulick Fionn Burke of Clanricarde

Garret Mor FitzGerarld, 8th Earl of Kildare

Strength

c.4,000

c.6,000

Casualties and losses

c.1,500

c. 1,000?

The Battle of Knockdoe was a battle that took place on 19 August 1504 at Knockdoe, in the Parish of Lackagh (Irish Leacach), County Galway, between two Anglo-Irish lords—Gerald FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and Ulick Fionn Burke, lord of Clanricarde—along with their respective Irish allies. The cause was a dispute between Maelsechlainn mac Tadhg Ó Cellaigh (Mod. Irish Maoilseachlainn mac Thaidhg Uí Cheallaigh), King of Ui Maine – Mod. Irish Uí Mháine) and Clanricarde. The major contemporary sources for this battle are the Gaelic Irish annals and a sixteenth-century manuscript written in the Pale known as "the Book of Howth".

Ulick Finn, as Burke was called, was an aggressive local magnate. He had become The Clanrickarde in the year 1485, and sought to establish his authority over all Connacht, including County Mayo, where the other branch of the great De Burgo (Burke) family held power. He also pursued his family’s interests at the expense of the towns of Galway and Athenry, two urban centres in Connacht which, despite their remoteness from the Pale, were notable for their loyalty to Crown government in Ireland. Although both families were of Norman stock, the western de Burghs (or Burkes) were integrated into the Gaelic world, whereas the Fitzgeralds of the Pale, though Gaelicised, retained cultural, social and political links to England.

The King's Deputy, Gerald, Earl of Kildare (Gearóid Mór), became concerned that Ulick Burke's attempt to gain supremacy in Connacht could simultaneously threaten the Crown's interests in that province and his claim to be the paramount magnate in Ireland. He had tried to persuade Ulick to acknowledge his authority by giving him his daughter Estacia in marriage. But Ulick Burke resisted all attempts to have his power subordinated by the Earl of Kildare, forming an alliance with O'Brien of Thomond and the magnates of Munster. The Burkes of Mayo, on the other hand, joined forces with Kildare with a view to suppressing their dangerous neighbour.

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