ABSTRACT
The idea of the Pale has become one of the defining features of late-medieval Ireland, symbolizing the political and cultural differences that divided the Gaelic Irish from the English settlers. The word derives from the Latin pallus, meaning a stake, and by extension a defensive wall built from stakes; the derivation is identical to that of the word “palisade.” But in the Irish context the word came to refer, not to a defensive perimeter, but to the area enclosed by such a notional perimeter; the area in which English culture and English law was observed. The Pale (roughly comprising the four “loyal” counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin, and Kildare) corresponded to “the land of peace,” as opposed to “the land of war” where Gaelic rule held sway.
