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Ireland 800–1169 aims to describe the history of Ireland from the first Viking raids to the Norman invasion. The first two centuries of this period are characterised by Viking raids and the subsequent Norse settlements along the coast. Ports were established at Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, which became the first large towns in Ireland.

Ireland consisted of many semi-independent túatha, and during the whole period attempts were made by various factions to gain political control over the whole of the island. For the first two centuries of our period this was mainly a rivalry between High Kings of Ireland from the northern and southern branch of the Uí Néill. The one who came closest to being de facto king over the whole of Ireland however was Brian Boru, the first high king in historical times not belonging to Uí Néill.

Following Brian's death at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, the political situation became more complex with rivalry for highkingship from several clanns and dynasties. Brian's descendants failed to maintain a unified throne, and regional squabbling over territory led indirectly to invasion of the Normans under Richard de Clare in 1169

Nature of the sources

A large body of contemporary and near-contemporary material on early medieval Ireland has survived. From the titles of works mentioned in these sources, it is clear that a great deal of additional material has now been lost. The surviving materials usually exist in the form of much later copies, and it is only from comparison of the various texts that the original documents can be reconstructed.

Extant Irish annals are ultimately derived from the now-lost Chronicle of Ireland which was probably being compiled in the midlands of Ireland by around 800. All include material derived from other sources, or added at a later date. The Annals of Ulster and the Annals of Innisfallen cover the years around 800. The Annals of Clonmacnoise survive only in an eccentric 17th century English translation, and the Annals of Tigernach for this period are lost with Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh's abbreviated copy known as the Chronicon Scotorum supplying only part of the missing material. The Annals of the Four Masters are late, and include some material of doubtful origin. While the annals provide a considerable amount of information, they are generally terse, and most focus their attention on the doings of the Uí Néill and of churchmen.

In addition to the annals, a large number of genealogies survive along with geographical and legal texts, poetry, sagas and hagiography.

Background

At the end of the 7th Century Ireland was homogeneously Gaelic, in terms of sosciety, culture and language. People lived in rural communities, and the only larger settlements was monastic towns of varying sizes. The whole of Ireland was Christian with a rich monastic culture, the monasteries played an important part in society not just with regards to religious and cultural life but also economy and politics.

Political landscape c. 800

Eoin MacNeill identified the "oldest certain fact in the political history of Ireland" as the existence in late prehistory of a pentarchy, probably consisting of the cóiceda or "fifths" of the Ulaid (Ulster), the Connachta (Connacht), the Laigin (Leinster), Mumu (Munster) and Mide (Meath), although some accounts discount Mide and split Mumu in two. This is not an accurate description of the political landscape c. 800, but when discussing the political subdivisions of Ireland at this time it is still useful to referr to this pentarchy, roughly corresponding with the modern provinces of Ireland.

The Uí Néill, divided in two main branches known as "Northern Uí Néill" and "Southern Uí Néill" was the leading dynasty in Ireland. The Northern Uí Néill controlled the north-western part of Ireland, and was divided into two leading branches, the Cenél Conaill in the west and Cenél nEógain, also known as the kingdom of Ailech. Cenél nEógain had become the more powerful of the two in 789, and had expanded east and southwards, gaining control over the important monastic centre Armagh and the large subkingdom of Airgíalla. The traditional kingdom of Ulaid, dominated by Dál Fiatach and Dál nAraidi, was now more or less confined to the area east of the river Bann.

The central region of Mide had been dominated by what became known as the "southern Uí Néill" since the 7th Century. Until the 8th century, the Síl nÁedo Sláine (also known as the kingdom of Brega) was preeminent, from 728 the western dynasty of Clann Cholmáin was dominant.

In Laighin, Uí Dúnlainge was the dominant dynasty c. 800. They were closely associated with the large monastery of Kildare. Their main rival for dominance in Leinster, the Uí Cheinnselaig had not been able to claim the title king of Leinster since 728. The Uí Cheinnselaig now controlled a territory in the southeastern part of Leinster, and had close links to the monastery of Ferns.

The kingdom of Osraige, occupying roughly the same area as the present County Kilkenny, was considered part of Munster. Munster was dominated by the Eóganachta, centered around Cashel and with Emly as ecclestiasticla center. The Dál gCais (not yet known under this name) had defeated the Corcu Modruad in 744 and taken control over the area in present County Clare from which they would later rise to dominance, but were not yet a significant power in Munster. Eóganachta rivaled the Uí Néill in power and influence, and claimed suzerainty over the southern part of Ireland. This claim was in part anchored within the legendary ancient division of the island in Leath Cuinn and Leath Moga, "Conns half" (north) and "Mugs half" (south).

During the 7th Century the Uí Briúin had emerged in Connacht, and since the first half of the 8th Century been the dominant dynasty. Uí Briúin also influenced the kingdom of Breifne on the southern borders of the Northern Uí Néill.

9th Century

Early Viking raids

The wind is fierce tonight
it tosses the sea's white mane
I do not fear the coursing of a quiet sea
by the fierce warriors of Lothlend

— Anonymous poem Is acher in gaíth in-nocht...

The first recorded Viking raid in Irish history occurred in 795 when Vikings from Norway looted the island of Lambay. This was followed by a raid on the coast of Brega in 798, and raids on the coast of Connacht in 807. These early Viking raids were generally small in scale and quick.

These early raids interrupted the golden age of Christian Irish culture starting the beginning of two hundred years of intermittent warfare, with waves of Viking raiders plundering monasteries and towns throughout Ireland. Most of the early raiders came from the fjords of western Norway. They are believed to have sailed first to Shetland, then south to Orkney. The Vikings would have then sailed down the Atlantic coast of Scotland, and then over to Ireland. During these early raids the Vikings also traveled to the west coast of Ireland to the Skellig Islands located off the coast of County Kerry. The early raids on Ireland seem to have been aristocratic free enterprise, and named leaders appear in the Irish annals: Saxolb (Soxulfr) in 837, Turges (Þurgestr) in 845, Agonn (Hákon) in 847.

Áed Oirdnide

Áed Oirdnide of the Cenél nEógain branch of the Northern Uí Néill became High King of Ireland in 797, after the death of his successor, father-in-law and political rival Donnchad Midi. This followed the classic Uí Néill political arrangement, where overkingship alternated regularly between Cenél nEógain and Clann Cholmáin of the Southern Uí Néill. During his reign he campaigned in Mide, Leinster and Ulaid to assert his authority, though unlike Donnchad he did not campaign in Mide.

Thomas Charles-Edwards credits Áed for "the absence of any major viking attacks on Ireland during his reign after 798". The annals gives no reference, however, to Áed at any time being involved with warfare against Viking raiders.

Áed was connected to the monastic community at Armagh, and a supporter of the familia of Patrick. His rivals for supremacy within Uí Néill, the Clann Cholmáin and the Cenél Conaill, had on the other hand supported the familia of Columba. During Áeds reign the Columban familia, following several Viking raids against Iona, established a new monastery at Kells, a royal site in the possesion of Armagh. Byrne states that "...the foundation marked the resolution of any remaining rivalry between the Columban and Patrician churches...". That the community of Columba in 817 tried to have Áed excommunicated may show that not all rivalry was resolved after all.

Rivalry between North and South

Fedelmid mac Crimthainn from the Eóganacht Chaisil acceded to the kingship of Munster in 820, beginning its 130-year domination by this branch of Eóganachta. Combining military campaigns with manipulation of ecclesiastical affairs, he embarked a policy of aggressive expansion to counter the growth in power of the Uí Néill. Conchobar mac Donnchada succeded Áed Oirdnide as Uí Néill overking in 819, and soon found himself challenged by Feidlimid, both by Feidlimid launching raids into Mide and Connacht and by him interfering (as would be the Uí Néill view) in the affairs of Armagh. Conchobar and Feidlimid met at Birr in 827 to discuss peace terms, and the very fact that "the king of Munster could force the high-king to a peace conference is indicative of Feidlimid's growing power".

Conchobar was succeded by Niall Caille in 833. With Niall, we for the first time see a reference in the annals of a Uí Néill leading an army against the Vikings, he defeated Viking raiders in Derry the same year. He sought to further expand Uí Néill influnce in the south, in 835 he led an army to Leinster and installed Bran mac Fáeláin as king of Leinster. This brought him in conflict with Feidlimid however, and in 838 a conference (rígdál mór - "great royal meeting") between Niall and Feidlimid was held. This meeting did not result in any lasting peace though, in 840 Feidlimid led an army into Mide and encamped at Tara and thereby challenged the Uí Néill also in the north. In 841 however, Feidlimid was routed in battle by Niall in Leinster. His successors in the south would not be able to challenge the north again to this extent until some 150 years later.

Intensified raiding and the first viking settlements in Ireland

The Viking raids on Ireland resumed in 821, and intensified during the following decades. The Vikings were beginning to establish fortified encampments, longports, along the Irish coast and overwintering in Ireland instead of retreating to Scandinavia or British bases. The first known longports were at Linn Dúachaill (Annagassan and Duiblinn (at or near Dublin on the River Liffey.They were also moving further inland to attack, often using rivers such as the Shannon, and then retreating to their coastal bases. The parties also increased in size, in 837 the annals report a fleet of sixty longships on the Liffey, carrying an army on 1500 men.

One of the first named viking leaders was Thorgest (in Latin Turgesius). The Annals of the Four Masters connect him with attacks on Connacht, Mide and the church at Clonmacnoise in 844. He was captured and drowned in Lough Owel by Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid, King of Mide.

In 848 a Norse army was defeated at Sciath Nechtain by Ólchobar mac Cináeda of Munster and Lorcán mac Cellaig of Leinster. For the first the leader of the Vikings is described as royalty from Lochlann. Máel Sechnaill, now High king, defeated another army at Forrach the same year. Arguing that his fight was allied with the Christian fight against pagans, he requested aid from the Frankish emperor Charles the Bald, but to no avail.

In 853 Amlaib, identified as a "son og the king of Lochlann, landed in Dublin Bay and established a fortress, on which the city of Dublin now stands. This moment is considered by some to be the date for the founding of Dublin, however by 902 the settlement, along with all other Viking settlements in Ireland, had been abandoned.

10th Century

Permanent Norse Settlements

A new and more intensive period of settlement in Ireland began in 914. In this year Waterford was re-occupied, and would become Ireland's first city. Waterford was established by the Viking Regnall, after whom Reginald's Tower, Ireland's oldest civic urban building, was built and named. Waterford is the only Irish city to retain its Viking derived name, meaning Ram fjord or Windy fjord, having originally been called Cuan na Gréine, Harbour of the Sun, by the Irish. Between 915 and 922, Cork, Dublin, Wexford and Limerick were established. Significant excavations in Dublin and Waterford in the 20th century has unearthed much of the Viking heritage of those cities. The Battle of Confey also took place at this time near Leixlip, a Viking settlement.

The Vikings founded many other coastal towns, and after several generations a group of mixed Irish and Norse ethnic background arose (the so-called Gall-Gaels, Gall then being the Irish word for "foreigners" - the Norse. Other commons names for this group is Norse-Gaels or Hiberno-Norse). This Norse influence is reflected in the Norse-derived names of many contemporary Irish kings (e.g. Magnus, Lochlann or Sitric), and DNA evidence in some residents of these coastal cities to this day. A genetics paper in 2006 by Dr Brian McEvoy found that most men with Irish-Viking surnames carried typically Irish genes. This suggests that Viking settlements may have had a Scandinavian élite but with most of the inhabitants being locals, refugees or outlaws.

The Dublin Vikings built large ships from local timber. The largest longship ever found was one of the Skuldelev ships excavated in Denmark in the 1960s. It may have been constructed of Irish oak in Dublin in 1060.

11th Century

Decline of Viking power

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The descendants of Ivar Beinlaus established a long dynasty based in Dublin, and from this base succeeded in dominating much of the isle. This rule was ultimately broken by the joint efforts of Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, King of Meath, and Brian Boru (c. 941- 1014) By the late tenth century, Brian Boru, the scion of a relatively obscure tribe from the midwestern part of the island, the Dál gCais, had gained enough influence through political maneuvering and conquest to claim the title of ard righ (high king). Brian and his allies defeated a combined Viking/native army at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Though Brian himself did not survive the battle, the Vikings ceased to be a major power in Ireland and were gradually assimilated into the native populace.

Although the Irish were largely free from foreign invasion for 150 years, interdynastic warfare continued to drain their energies and resources. In the early 1100's, Gilla Críst Ua Máel Eóin (died 1127), Abbot of Clonmacnoise, wrote a famous book entitled "Chronicon Scotorum". It is a chronology of Ireland from the Flood to the twelfth century.

See also

• History of Ireland
• Early Scandinavian Dublin

Notes

1. Hughes, Early Christian Ireland, is a general survey of the subject.
2. Hughes, Early Christian Ireland, chapter 4, especially pp. 135–137; Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland, p. xix; Ó Cróinín, "Ireland 400–800", passim.
3. Eoin MacNeill, Phases of Irish History, Dublin, 1920, pp. 98-132
4. Ó Cróinín, Dáibhi (2005) «Ireland, 400–800» pp.187-188. Ó Cróinín also points out the irony of "at no time in the historical period did the political division represented by the word cóiced... ...have a tangible existence"
5. Ó CorráinThe Vikings&Ireland, p. 2. It is worth noting that they may not have been as dominant in earlier history as medieval sources tend to claim, according to Ó Corráin they :"paraded illustrious ancestors and their claim to precedence was expressed in an elaborate mythography that passed for history."
6. Ó CorráinThe Vikings&Ireland, p. 2.
7. ^ Woolf, Alex From Pictland to Alba, p. 47 Woolf "contructs a plausible narrative" based on an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle where these early raiders can be identified as originating on the west-coast of Norway.
8. Ó CorráinThe Vikings&Ireland, p. 9 The annals name the site of this attack as Rechru, a name that could mean either modern Lambay Island or Rathlin
9. Byrne, F.J. The viking age, pp.609-610
10. Ó Corráin- The Vikings in Scotland and Ireland...
11. T. M. Charles-Edwards, ‘Áed Oirdnide mac Néill
12. Byrne, Francis John (2005), "Church and politics", p.663.
13. T. M. Charles-Edwards, ‘Áed Oirdnide mac Néill, AU 817.8
14. ^ Bracken, "Feidlimid mac Crimthainn..."
15. AU 825.1
16. Hudson, Niall Caille. According to Hudson, "Any agreement made there has not survived, although the report of the meeting from a Munster chronicle with a bias towards the southern prince claims that Niall submitted to Feidlimid, while a contemporary northern chronicle has no report of the proceedings."
17. Ó Corráin, "The Vikings in Ireland, p. 19. The first report of Vikings spendign the winter in Ireland is from Lough Neagh 840-41, the first overwintered in Dublin 841-43
18. AU 873.3, Ó Corráin, "The Vikings in Ireland, p. 19.
19. AFM 843.13
20. AU 845.8
21. AU 848.5
22. AU 848.4
23. The archaeology of the early viking age in Ireland
24. McEvoy&al., EJHG article
25. Byrne, F.J. The viking age p. 625

References

• Annals of Innisfallen, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2000, retrieved 2010-03-19

• Annals of the Four Masters, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2002, retrieved 2010-03-19

• Annals of Ulster AD 431–1201, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2003, retrieved 2010-03-19

• Chronicon Scotorum, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2003, retrieved 2010-03-19

• Bracken, Damian (2004), "Feidlimid mac Crimthainn (d. 847)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 2007-25-10 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

• Byrne, Francis John (2005), "Church and politics, c.750-c.1100", in Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (ed.), Prehistoric and Early Ireland, A New History of Ireland, vol. I, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 654–679, ISBN 0-19-922665-8 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)

• Byrne, Francis John (2005), "The Viking Age", in Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (ed.), Prehistoric and Early Ireland, A New History of Ireland, vol. I, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 609–631, ISBN 0-19-922665-8 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)

• Charles-Edwards, T. M. (2004), "Áed Oirdnide mac Néill (d. 819)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 2009-01-06

• Hudson, Benjamin T. (2004), "Niall mac Áeda (d. 846)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 2007-25-10 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

• Hughes, Kathleen (1972), Early Christian Ireland. Introduction to the sources, London and Ithaca NY, pp. 99–159{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Jaski, Bart (2005). "Brian Boru (926–1014)". In Seán Duffy (ed.). Medieval Ireland. An Encyclopedia. Abingdon and New York. pp. 45–47.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Jaski, Bart (2005). "Kings and kingship". In Seán Duffy (ed.). Medieval Ireland. An Encyclopedia. Abingdon and New York. pp. 251–254.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• McEvoy, Brian, Claire Brady, Laoise T Moore and Daniel G Bradley. "The scale and nature of Viking settlement in Ireland from Y-chromosome admixture analysis". European Journal of Human Genetics (2006). 14: 1288–1294. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201709.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (1998), "The Vikings in Scotland and Ireland in the Ninth Century" (PDF), Peritia, 12, Belgium: Brepols: 296–339, ISBN 2-503-50624-0, retrieved 2010-03-19

• Ó Corráin, Donnchadh, Vikings&Ireland (PDF), retrieved 2010-03-19

• Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (2005), "Ireland 400–800", in Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (ed.), Prehistoric and Early Ireland, A New History of Ireland, vol. I, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 182–234, ISBN 0-19-922665-8 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)

• Viking Network Ireland, The archaeology of the early viking age in Ireland, retrieved 2010-03-19

• Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, vol. 2, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-7486-1234-5 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)

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