The Viking invasions of Ireland occurred from 795 to 1014 when the Norse Vikings of Scandinavia and the North Sea islands launched several incursions into Ireland as part of their greater expansion into the British Isles. The first attack came in 795 against the Irish monastery of Raithlin, and, over the next few centuries, the Vikings established settlements along the Irish coast and colonized much of the country. However, the interior areas remained loyal to the Celtic Christian kingdoms, and, after the 1014 Battle of Clontarf, the Viking expansion against the Irish states was brought to an end.
Background[]
The early Viking raids on Ireland began in the 790s AD. They were comparatively small scale and it was more than 40 years before larger groups came to settle. The first reported Viking attack came in 795 against the monastery of Rechru (Raithlin) which was "laid waste". Raithlin lay off the northeast coast of Ireland, an easy journey for marauders making their way from Scotland, but soon the Vikings swept south, attacking Inis Patraic off the coast of County Dublin in 798 and smashing the much-revered shrine of Do Chonna. Just as they had in England, the Viking raids caused outrage, increased by the fact that monasteries and churches, with their easily portable treasures, were the raiders' principal targets. By 807 Viking raiders reached the west coast of Ireland, burning monasteries as they went. Occasionally the Irish fought back successfully; an annal entry for 811 speaks of a "slaughter of pagans" by the men of Ulster. The Book of Kells was brought to Ireland after a raid on the monastery at Iona in Scotland.
History[]
The main accounts of the early Viking raids come from chronicles such as the Annals of Ulster, which were compiled in monasteries. The writers reserved particular venom for the Norsemen, referring to them as geinti ("heathens") and holding up the Viking raids as an example of divine wrath against an Ireland that had turned away from God.
Early attacks[]
The early attackers, who seem to have come from Norway, gradually expanded the field of their operations, in the south reaching Cork by 822 AD, and in the north plundering the monastery of Bangor in 824, where they scattered the relics of Saint Comgall from its shrine in a shocking act of sacrilege. Unlike in France and England, there was no centrally organized resistance to the Vikings in Ireland, which may have encouraged the Scandinavians to mount further raids. In the 830s, these became more serious, sometimes penetrating deep inland; in 837 two large Viking fleets appeared carrying thousands of warriors (probably from the Norse settlements in Scotland), one on the Boyne and another on the Liffey (near the site of present-day Dublin). The army of the Ui Neill kings, which tried to resist them, was cut to pieces.
In 839, a Viking fleet stayed over the winter for the first time in Lough Neagh, and remained for two years. If this was a grim development, far worse was to come. For in 841 the Vikings began to establish fortified naval bases, or longphorts, first at Linn Duachaill in County Louth and at Dublin and then, in the following decade, at a number of other ports including Lough Ree (845) and Cork (848). The main laeder of the Viking leaders in the 840s was Turgeis, who operated from the longphorts at Lough Ree, and whose attacks ranged widely through Connaught and Meath, including the abbey of Clonmacnoise. At the latter, his wife Ota is said to have performed a pagan divinatory rite called seidr, while draped across the high altar. Finally, in 845, Turgeis was captured by Maell Sechnaill, the King of Tara, and drowned in Lough Owel.
The Irish kings, who had expended so much effort in fighting each other, now realized that the Vikings posed a much greater threat to their survival. In 848, Maell Sechnaill won another victory near Skreen, County Meath, in which he is said to have killed 700 Vikings. An embassy sent by the Irish to the Frankish King Charles the Bald the same year announced that they had driven the pagans out of Ireland.
Viking Dublin[]
The Viking had not, however, been removed, although they were weakened by internal disputes and the arrival of a new group from Denmark which sacked Dublin in 851. The Scandinavians were only saved from tearing themselves apart by the arrival of Amlaib from Scotland in 853, who allied himself with Imar, another Viking leader, adn re-established the supremacy of Dublin. He made it the main Norse center in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and England. For the next half-century the dynasty that Amlaib and Imar founded held sway in Dublin and across the Irish Sea. Frequently, however, the Dublin dynasty's interest in Britain weakened their position in Ireland, as in 866 when the Ui Neill king Aed mac Neill sacked a series of Viking longphorts, burning the Viking fort in Dublin the following year. In 873 Imar died, and for the next 30 years, the Dublin Vikings were riven by a series of dynastic feuds, until finally, in 903, the Irish recaptured Dublin.
The Viking return[]
Ireland's gain was Britain's loss, as an exodus of Dublin Vikings descended on North West England and parts of wales. It was not long, however, before the Vikings returned to Ireland with the appearance in 914 of "a great sea-fleet of pagans" in Waterford. In 917, Imar's grandson, Sihtric Caech, and Ragnall, a Dane from Northumbria, arrived with a new force. Niall Glundub, the King of Tara, saw the danger and moved against the Norsemen, a campaign which ended in a heavy defeat and the retaking of Dublin by Sihtric.
The Vikings established a second settlement at Dublin close to the first longphort of 841. This phase of the Viking town has been excavated, revealing a network of streets and lanes divided by boundary fences of wattle, defining plots containing well-built houses. Remains have been found of a variety of industries, including comb-making, blacksmiths and other metal-workers, wood- and amber-working. At this time, Dublin's population was probably several thousand, and it was clearly a prosperous place.
The Second Age[]
The Second Viking Age in Ireland from 917 saw an attempt by Sihtric and his kinsman Godfrid, to create a Viking kingdom in Ireland to match that of York in northern England. However, this effort was undermined by their continued involvement in England, as first Sihtric, then Godfrid succeeded to the throne of York and abandoned their Irish possessions to deputies. Godfrid's successor, Amlaib, also became entangled in English affairs, fighting against King Athelstan of Wessex at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. Amlaib escaped the defeat of his allies at the battle, but he became King of York, as did his successor in Dublin, Amlaib Cuaran in 944-45.
On his return to England, Amlaib Cuaran threw himself wholeheartedly into trying to restore the Viking position in Ireland. By now, however, the Norse were more like another fractious Irish kingdom than a foreign power to be feared. In 980, they were thoroughly crushed by Mael Sechnaill of the southern Ui Neill, who then forced Dublin to come to terms, including the release of all Irish slaves in the territory ruled by the Vikings.
Rise and fall of Brian Boru[]
By the 980s, the Dal Cais dynasty under Brian Boru had established itself in Munster, beginning a bitter struggle with Maell Sechnaill for the high-kingship of Ireland. In 997, the two Irish kings divided the island between them, with Brian becoming the nominal overlord of Dublin. He married his daughter to the leader of the Dublin Vikings and married himself into the same family to strengthen his position.
A desperate final bid by the Vikings for independence from the Irish rulers took place in 1014, when the Dublin Norse recruited an army, including Vikings from Orkney and the Hebrides, to help them throw off Brian's rule. On 23 April 1014, the Vikings faced the troops of Brian Boru and Mael Sechnaill at Clontarf to the north of Dublin. Although Brian was killed, the Irish were utterly victorious. After 1014, Dublin remained a fundamentally Scandinavian town for more than a century, but the Viking Age in Ireland was over.
Aftermath[]
Scandinavian influence on teh art and language of IReland lived on even after the Viking defeat at Clontarf in 1014. The Ringerike style, with its spirals and tendrils in the shape of leaves, and the Urnes style, with its fantastic beasts and sinuous snakes, spread widely throughout Ireland, appearing both in metal-working and on stone sculpture. A few Viking terms made their way into modern Irish, such as accaire ("anchor"), margad ("market"), and sraid ("street"). The most enduring Viking legacy of all, however, is the establishment of the first towns in Ireland, including Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford.
The death of Brian Boru at Clontarf was a disaster for his family, the Ui Briain. Mael Sechnaill once again became the most powerful king in Ireland until his death in 1022. Therafter, Diarmait of Leinster was supreme from 1042 to 1072, using the remaining Viking fleet of Dublin in campaigns in Wales in the 1040s. His court was a magnet for disaffected English and Welsh princes, and in 1066 he gave refuge to the sons of Harold Godwinson after their father's defeat at the Battle of Hastings.