For most people in the medieval world, life probably was nasty, brutish and short. But it had its pleasant aspects too. We know that music, poetry and feasting were central to people’s lives, and religious festivals were accompanied by much merry-making. "If 'fighting' served as one central pillar of which Gaelic society rested, feasting was the other...Feasting was a public display of a lord's power over his followers...and enhanced his standing and status within his lordship." (Ohlmeyer, 2023). 

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John Derricke's illustration of a feast of the MacSweeney chief could just as easily be that of their neighbours, the O'Boyle's. Derricke  accompanied the Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney on his campaign to subjugate the Gaelic lords and produced a series of illustrations to tell the story, complete with hostile commentary on Irish customs, religious practice and even dress.  There is an interesting detail on the right of the image above, where two guests are mooning the bard and have Latin inscriptions that read: "This is how my parents taught me to behave as a spectator" and "All older people lacking in goodness taught me the same".  

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The caption underneath describes the scene and reads:

A)  Now when into their fenced holds, the knaves are entered in,

To smite and knock the cattle down, the hangmen do begin.

One plucks off the dress coat, which he even now did wear:

Another lacking pans, to boil the flesh, his hide prepare.

C)  These thieves attend upon the fire, for serving up the feast:

B)  And Friar Smellfeast sneaking in, doth preach amongst the best.

Who plays in Romish toys the ape, by counterfeiting Paul:

For which they do award him then, the highest room of all.

Who being set, because the cheer, is deemed little worth:

Except the same be intermixed and laced with Irish mirth.

D)  Both bard, and harper, is prepared, which by their cunning art,

Do busk and cheer up all the guests, with comfort at the heart.

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Throughout the 12th to the 15th centuries there are frequent references to the O’Boyle sept in the annals (especially in the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, written in the 1630s by the so-called ‘Four Masters’). What gets recorded however tends to be the conflicts, power struggles, wars and deaths so what we know of the O’Boyle sept in this period casts them in a very violent light.

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Warfare seems to have been more-or-less continuous in the Gaelic world. By the early 1400s, the O’Donnell sept have achieved a position of dominance in Tir Chonaill, and the other leading families, the O’Boyles, O’Gallaghers and MacSweeneys were at the beck and call of their overlords to support their frequent military excursions into neighbouring territories to exact tribute or suppress an upstart rival family.

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​One forms the impression that these local feuds were viewed much as sporting contests are seen today – an opportunity to display strength and power, create camaraderie and social bonding and gain celebrity and status, with the bonus of winning some booty and plunder. But they were violent and bloody affairs, and while the numbers quoted as engaging in battles may be fanciful, death and destruction was commonplace.

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The O’Boyles are mentioned frequently in the annals as mustering with the O’Donnells to attack some rival or other. They are not given a specific role within the O’Donnell establishment, unlike the Gallaghers who provided the cavalry, and the Sweeneys, who were imported into the O’Donnell lands from Scotland as axe-wielding, armoured mercenary infantry. 

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Nor do we see evidence of the O’Boyles taking an independent political line, or seeking to exert influence or dominance on their own account. In the absence of any sign to the contrary, they seem to have accepted their displacement by the Mac Sweeney mercenaries with little resistance. They are always in the shadow of the O’Donnells, loyal lieutenants ready to do their bidding, but never challenging their authority.  There may be another story, but the only sources we have are those who job it was to eulogise the O’Donnells, and any activity of the O’Boyles that might detract from their overlord’s reputation would not be mentioned.

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