ABSTRACT
Ireland has experienced two main phases of urban colonization. The first took place in the context of the Anglo-French lordship of Ireland and was carried out under seigneurial direction in the period from c.1170 to c.1270. The second took place in the context of the English kingdom of Ireland, essentially between 1556 and 1641. The south-eastern bias in the distribution of towns in high medieval Ireland goes back beyond 1170 to the initial period of Scandinavian settlement in the ninth and tenth centuries. Planning and regulation in the early towns undoubtedly occurred, as the Dublin archaeological excavations have revealed in remarkable detail but too little is known as yet for general observations to be made. The very institutions and language of plantation were largely medieval: the formation of shires, escheated counties, grants of land in fee-farm, weekly markets, annual fairs, liberties and even pie-powder courts.
