11/07/2025
𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝’𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐭! 🇮🇪 🏴
In 1315, Edward de Bruce — younger brother of Robert the Bruce — landed in Antrim and was crowned High King of Ireland a year later. His reign lasted just 3 years, ending at the Battle of Faughart in 1318 during a time of famine and hardship.
But here’s the kicker — it wasn’t an invasion in the way we often imagine. The Irish invited Edward in, seeking alliance with the Scots after Bannockburn, against their common enemy: the English.
Why? Because we’re of the same blood. The word Scotus in medieval Latin meant “Gael” or “Irishman.” Scotland literally means “land of the Scoti.” We shared language, customs, and kinship.
As Professor Seán Duffy said in his lecture “King Robert Bruce the Irishman”: Robert the Bruce used his Gaelic heritage to forge a Celtic alliance of Irish, Scots — and even the Welsh — against English rule. His mother was a Gael from the Firth of Clyde, giving him real ties to Ireland and the Gaelic world.
From Rathlin Island in 1306–7, Bruce wrote to Irish chiefs reminding them that Scots and Irish “sprung from one seed of birth” and shared “a common language and customs.”
This alliance wasn’t fantasy — it was real. As Duffy notes, the Irish helped Bruce secure the Scottish crown, and in return, the Bruces (Edward and Robert) were welcomed into Ireland to lead a united Gaelic front to “shake off the yoke of English tyranny.”
Of course, like most High Kings, there was opposition and flat-out refusal or acknowledgement. But Edward De Bruce is buried in Ireland as 'King of Ireland' in Faughart Cemetery close to where he died in battle in 1318.
Bruce fought alongside the Irish against colonisers, the newly formed 'Anglo-Irish', the Hiberno-Irish, and the Norman Irish, essentially so, in my view, I commend his efforts to revive the Irish High Kingship, and I also view the Scots as my brothers and sisters.