Irish History...

The Irish landscape is dotted with castles. The most common style is the Norman Tower castle (like the one in the picture). It seems like every major city and town (and even randomly in the country-side)has one or has the remnants of one. The Norman invaders built these small castles as defensive headquarters as they tried to subdue the unruly Irish. Until the building of these castles the Irish were very spread out and still nomadic in many places. In many ways these tower-castles helped to create centers of trade and thus centralized Irish communities. Today, these castles (like the one in the picture) are mostly in ruins. There are a lot that have been preserved or restored and now are used as museums.