Ireland in The First Viking Age
The Viking Age in Ireland began in 795 with attacks on monasteries on the islands of Rathlin, Inishmurray, and Inishbofin. In the following twenty years raids by Vikings—called "Foreigners" or "Gentiles" in Irish sources—were small in scale, infrequent and largely limited to the coasts. The Annals of Ulster record raids in Ireland in only five of the first twenty years of the 9th century. In the 820s, there are records of larger raids in Ulster and Leinster. The range, size, and frequency of attacks increased in the 830s. In 837, Viking fleets operated on the rivers Boyne and Liffey in central Ireland, and in 839 a fleet was based on Lough Neagh in the north-east.
The records indicate that the first permanent Viking bases were established in 841, near Dublin and Annagassan. Other fortified settlements were established in the following decades at Wexford, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork. It is in this period that the leaders of the Irish-based Scandinavians are recorded by name. Turgesius, who is made the conqueror of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis and a son of Harald Fairhair by Scandinavian sagas, is one of these. He was captured, and drowned in Lough Owel, by Máel Sechnaill in 845. Máel Sechnaill was reported to have killed 700 Foreigners in 848, and the King of Munster, Ólchobar mac Cináeda, killed 200 more, including an earl named Tomrair, the "heir designate of the King of Laithlind".
In 849 a new force appeared, the "Dark Foreigners". Possibly Danes, their activities were directed against the "Foreigners" already in Ireland. A major naval battle fought in Carlingford Lough in 853 produced a victory for the newcomers. In the same year, there arrived another force, the "Fair Foreigners", led by Amlaíb, "son of the king of Laithlind", and Ímar. From the 840s onwards, the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland and the Irish annals recount frequent alliances between the "Foreigners" and Irish kings, especially after the appearance of Amlaíb and Ímar as rulers of Dublin.
The later 860s saw a reduction of activity by the Foreigners—although the Annals indignantly report that they plundered the ancient burial mounds at Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth in 863—with the Dublin forces active in Pictland and in the six months' siege of Dumbarton Rock. Áed Findliath took advantage of these absences to destroy the Viking fortresses in the north of Ireland. Amlaíb left Ireland for good in 871 and Ímar died in 873. With their disappearance, there were frequent changes of leadership among the Foreigners and a great deal of internecine conflict is reported for the following decades.
Read more about this topic: Flann Sinna
Famous quotes containing the words ireland, viking and/or age:
“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)
“Rice and peas fit into that category of dishes where two ordinary foods, combined together, ignite a pleasure far beyond the capacity of either of its parts alone. Like rhubarb and strawberries, apple pie and cheese, roast pork and sage, the two tastes and textures meld together into the sort of subtle transcendental oneness that we once fantasized would be our experience when we finally found the ideal mate.”
—John Thorne, U.S. cookbook writer. Simple Cooking, “Rice and Peas: A Preface with Recipes,” Viking Penguin (1987)
“The best work of artists in any age is the work of innocence liberated by technical knowledge. The laboratory experiments that led to the theory of pure color equipped the impressionists to paint nature as if it had only just been created.”
—Nancy Hale (b. 1908)