VIKING ADVENTURES

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IRISH ADVENTURES

A new and more intensive period of Viking settlement in Ireland began in 914. Between 914 and 922 the Norse established Waterford, Cork, Dublin, Wexford and Limerick. Significant excavations in Dublin and Waterford in the 20th century have unearthed much of the Viking heritage of those cities. A large amount of Viking burial stones, called the Rathdown Slabs, have been found in multiple locations across South Dublin.

The Vikings founded many other coastal towns, and after several generations of coexistence and intermarriage a group of mixed Irish and Norse ethnic background arose (often called Norse-Gaels or Hiberno-Norse). 

Norse influence shows in the Norse-derived names of many contemporary Irish kings (e.g. Magnus, Lochlann or Sitric), and in 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 elite but with most of the inhabitants being indigenous Irish.

Niall Glúndub marched on Dublin in September 919, but Sihtric met his forces at the battle of Islandbridge or Áth Cliath and inflicted on him a decisive defeat, with Niall and numerous other Irish leaders among the casualties. Dublin was secured for the Norse, and in 920 Sitric left for York and following Ragnall's death succeeded him as ruler there in 921. Their kinsman Gofraid assumed control of Dublin. Gofraid was active as a Viking raider and slaver, but there were signs during his reign that the Norse were not just mere Vikings any more. 

During a raid at Armagh in 921 Gofraid "...spared the prayerhouses... ...and the sick from destruction", considerations never taken by the raiders of the previous century. Another was the intense campaigns led by Dublin in eastern Ulster from 921 to 927, which appear to have aimed at conquest in order to create a Scandinavian kingdom like the one on the eastern side of the Irish sea.

Dublin's ambitions in Ulster were halted by a series of defeats inflicted upon the Norse by Muirchertach mac Néill, the son of Niall Glúndub. According to Benjamin Hudson, "Muirchertach was one of the most successful generals of his day and was described as the 'Hector of the Irish'". 

In the annals, it is (Duncan) Donnchad Donn from Clann Cholmáin who is titled "high king" after Niall however, and Muirchertach did not succeed his father as king of Ailech either until 938. Apart from his victories over the Norse, Muirchertach led campaigns forcing other provincial kingdoms into submission, most notably taking the king of Munster Cellachán Caisil captive in 941. The same year he led a fleet to the Hebrides, collecting tribute there.

When Sihtric died in 927 Gofraid left for York, trying to assume kingship there. He was driven out by Athelstan, and returned to Dublin half a year later. The Vikings of Limerick had taken Dublin in his absence. Gofraid retook the city, but the struggle between Limerick continued well after Gofraid's death in 934. He was succeeded by his son, Amlaíb, who inflicted a decisive defeat on Limerick in 937. 

The same year Amlaíb went to Northumbria and allied himself with Constantine II of Scotland and Owen I of Strathclyde. Athelstan defeated this coalition at Brunanburh (937), but after Athelstan's death in 939 Amlaíb became king of York. He was joined by a kinsman with the same name, Amlaíb son of Sihtric, known as Amlaíb Cuarán.

Congalach mac Máel Mithig, known as Cnogba, succeeded (Duncan) Donnchad Donn as Uí Néill overking in 944 (Muirchertag, who otherwise might have been the obvious successor, had been killed in 943). Congalach was king of Brega and a member of Síl nÁedo Sláine, and the first of this dynasty called "High King" since Cináed mac Írgalaig in the early 8th century. In 944 he sacked Dublin, now ruled by Blácaire mac Gofrith. 

When Amlaíb Cuaran returned to Ireland the next year, he became ruler of Dublin and acted as an ally of Congalach in the struggle against Ruaidrí ua Canannáin, a rival Uí Néill claimant for High Kingship from Cenél Conaill. This alliance did not last long after Ruaidrí's death in 950, however, and Congalach was killed in 956 in a battle against an alliance of Dublin and Leinster. He was succeeded by Domnall ua Néill, and in the following decades alliances shifted constantly between the different branches of Uí Néill, Leinster and Dublin.

In 980 Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill succeeded Domnall, and the same year he defeated the forces of Dublin at the battle of Tara. Following this victory Máel Sechnaill forced Dublin into submission, and his half-brother, Amlaíbs son Glúniairn, became ruler in Dublin.

and as always have a chilled day from the Viking