Kildare is a cathedral town and county in eastern Ireland. The place name is derived from the Irish Cell dara (church of the oak tree), a feature interpreted as the survival of a pagan oak grove into Christian times. The presence of a nunnery associated with a perpetual fire, first described in the 1180s, has been regarded as the continuation of a pre-Christian tradition similar to that of the vestal virgins at Rome—although such views are often contested. Kildare sits on a hill rising above the Curragh, a sacred landscape since Early Bronze Age times (c. 2400-c. 1600 b.c.e.), and it is likely that a pre-Christian ritual site preceded the cathedral. The date at which a Christian ecclesiastical settlement was established is unknown, although it is assumed that it occurred in the fifth or sixth century. The site has been associated with Brigit from early times. The first securely dated bishop is Aed Dub mac Colmain, who died in 639, by which time a cathedral evidently existed. This was an exceptional building and is described by Cogitosus in his Life of Brigit, written around 650, as a basilica, that is, a church with important relics. It is probably the same building as the dairthech (oak church) referred to in 762, and it may have stood until 1020, when the ecclesiastical complex was remodeled. Kildare was the preeminent church site of Leinster in the early medieval period, and as such it was a target of attack by both Irish and Vikings. Between 710 and 1155 it was burned or plundered on at least thirty-eight occasions. Its ecclesiastical importance was confirmed in 1111 by its designation as an episcopal see at the synod of Raith Bressail.
In the early 1170s Strongbow used Kildare as a base, and by 1176 it was the principal manor of his north Leinster lordship. The castle was probably established at this time, although the first documentary evidence does not occur until around 1185. Kildare prospered during the thirteenth century. A new cathedral, traditionally ascribed to Ralph of Bristol (bishop, 1223-1232), was constructed; the Franciscan friary was founded around 1254 to 1260; a Carmelite friary was established around 1290; and the church of St. Mary Magdalen, with its associated hospital, was in existence by 1307. The town functioned primarily as a marketplace and collection point for the agricultural produce of the region, which was conveyed from there to Dublin. In 1248, after the death of the last of William Marshal’s male heirs, Kildare passed into the hands of William de Vescy. During the 1290s the town was threatened by Gaelic-Irish and Anglo-Norman lords. In 1295 it was captured and the castle ransacked by Calbach Ua Conchobair Failge. Two years later the de Vescys surrendered their interest to the crown, and in 1316 both castle and town were granted to John Fitz-Thomas FitzGerald, who was created earl of Kildare as a reward for his loyalty during the Bruce invasion. Kildare, with an estimated population of between 1000 and 1500, was never very large, but after the Black Death it shrank considerably, and by the late Middle Ages it was little more than a village.
