First Battle of Athenry 1249
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
About the battle
The First Battle of Athenry was fought on 15 August 1249 at Athenry (Irish: Áth na Ríogh) in modern County Galway, Ireland. The Irish forces of Connacht besieged the town but were repelled by the English under Jordan de Exeter, Sheriff of Connacht.
Áth na Ríogh had existed as a Gaelic settlement under the Ó Mainnín kings of Soghain [1], but between 1236 and 1241 Meyler de Bermingham captured the area and made Athenry an urban walled settlement. Though by 1249 it featured a castle and Franciscan friary, it was still close to hostile Gaelic territory.
The contemporary Annals of Connacht give the following account of the battle:
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article First Battle of Athenry (revision 1370618436), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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