10-11th Century Irish Warriors

[Celtic505]

Thank you Matthew!!! From your links I was able to navigate through many sources and believe I have found at least one contemporary source for the apron like garment worn in the McBride illustrations and other modern depictions of Irish warriors from the 11th century. Here it is, the Shrine of St. Manchán. The shrine is contemporary to the era of Boru, 100 years give or take, and the image shows a group of laymen, most of whom are warriors underneath a cross. A chieftan is supposed to be depicted among them as well. Apparently the garment is known as a philibeg, and is refered to as a kilt by some, though I think it's just modern misinterperetation stemming from the romanticized idea that kilts were worn in Ireland and go back well before the 1600's and so the connection is made to anything resembling a kilt in ancient and medieval art. Though it is curious as to what these are, where the style came from and if, however unlikely, it had anything to do with the formation of the scottish kilt or 'belted plaid'. I do find it strange that you do not see these in earlier art or descriptions and certainly do not appear in later art and depictions, of which we have many from the 15th century on including effigies, carvings of galloglass, as well as descriptions by writers and wood cuts of kern. How such a garmet would appear, disappear and then suddenly appear in 17th century Scotland is quite a mystery, if such a connection exists at all....which I doubt. Anyways here is a picture of the shrine below. I am so friggin happy and excited to have finally tracked down this piece of information, now I have more questions and digging to do. Still I am happy to finally piece together an image of an 11th century Irish warrior....its a blurry image but an image nonetheless. Once again Thanks Matthew! I am very greatful! I've been looking for this kind of information for a long, long time. I appreciate your help. Thanks.

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