The Six Burnings
Archived: 23 October 2026
Abstract
For Ireland, 1360 is remembered most clearly through a stark cluster of fires. The Annals of Connacht record “great burnings” at Roscommon, Devenish, Sligo, the monastery of Lisgoole, Fenagh and Drumlease. The entry gives no date within the year, no named commander and no narrative explaining whether these were connected attacks, separate raids, or destruction arising from several local conflicts. That silence matters. It would be unsafe to turn the notice into a single, neatly organised campaign. Yet its geographical reach, from Connacht into Fermanagh and the north-west, makes it an unusually vivid indication of insecurity in a year otherwise