In 1309 De Wogan was again appointed Governor.  The exactions of the nobles had risen to such a height, that some of their number began to fear the effects would recoil on themselves.  High food rates and fearful poverty then existed, in consequence of the cruel exactions of the Anglo-Normans on their own dependents.  They lived frequently in their houses, and quartered their soldiers and followers on them, without offering them the smallest remuneration.  A statute was now made which pronounced these proceedings “open robbery,” and accorded the right of suit in such cases to the crown.  But this enactment could only be a dead letter.  We have already seen how the crown dealt with the most serious complaints of the natives; and even had justice been awarded to the complainant, the right of eviction was in the hands of the nearest noble, and the unfortunate tenant would have his choice between starvation in the woods or marauding on the highways, having neither the dernier resort of a workhouse or emigration in that age.

The Viceroy had abundant occupation suppressing the feuds both of the Irish and the colonists.  Civil war raged in Thomond, but the quarrels between the Anglo-Norman settlers in the same province, appear to have been more extensive and less easily appeased.  In a note to the Annals of Clonmacnois, MacGeoghegan observes, that “there reigned more dissentions, strife, warrs, and debates between the Englishmen themselves, in the beginning of the conquest of this kingdome, than between the Irishmen; as by perusing the warrs between the Lacies of Meath, John Coursey, Earle of Ulster, William Marshal, and the English of Meath and Munster, Mac Gerald, the Burke, Butler, and Cogan, may appear.”

The famous invasion of Ireland by Bruce took place on the 16th of May, A.D. 1315.  On that day Edward landed on the coast of Ulster, near Carrickfergus, with six thousand men.  He was attended by the heroes of Bannockburn; and as a considerable number of native forces soon joined them, the contingent was formidable.  Although a few of the Irish had assisted Edward II. in his war against Scotch independence, the sympathies of the nation were with the cause of freedom; and they gladly hailed the arrival of those who had delivered their own country, hoping they would also deliver Ireland.  It was proposed that Edward Bruce should be made King of Ireland.  The Irish chieftain, Donnell O’Neill, King of Ulster, in union with the other princes of the province, wrote a spirited but respectful remonstrance to the Holy See, on the part of the nation, explaining why they were anxious to transfer the kingdom to Bruce.