The Pale was an area around Dublin under English rule in the 14th through 16th centuries. The Eyewitness Travel Guides to Ireland says,

" The term "Pale" refers to an area around Dublin that marked the limits of English influence from Norman to Tudor times. The frontier fluctuated, but at its largest the Pale stretched from Dundalk in County Louth to Waterford town. Gaelic chieftains outside the area could keep their lands provided the agreed to bring up their heirs within the Pale.

The Palesmen supported their rulers' interests and considered themselves the upholders of English values. This widened the gap between the Gaelic majority and the Anglo-Irish, a foretaste of England's doomed involvement in the country. Long after its fortifications were dismantled, the idea of the Pale lived on as a state of mind. The expression "beyond the Pale" survives as a definition of those outside the bounds of civilized society."