Ireland's OWN: History

 

The Vikings —by Douglas Dalby, IrishAbroad The Vikings built more than they destroyed in Ireland, writes IrishAbroad's Douglas Dalby. "First the Vikings came around, Turned us up and turned us down, Started building boats and towns, They tried to change our living, tried to change our living." (Irish Ways and Irish Laws) THE words in this Irish ballad of resistance are, like many attempts to portray history, only a partial truth. Like other unwelcome guests over the years before and after, the Vikings were assimilated and absorbed rather than driven out of Ireland. They came to plunder but many of them settled and developed significant trading centres around the country. The first recorded Viking raid on Ireland occurred in 795 when the Norsemen sacked a monastery on Lambay Island, near Dublin. At first they were content to mount lightning raids on poorly defended coastal settlements from where they would sail away with their plunder. By the mid-800s, however, they were using the rivers to venture inland and setting up more permanent bases from where they would attack the surrounding countryside. Dublin was their main settlement and the rest, as they say, is history. Ireland proved to be relatively easy pickings. The country was in no way united and fortifications were few. It was a rural society with no towns. Even at the height of the Viking attacks, the Irish clan chieftains were more intent on fighting one another than uniting against a foreign aggressor.  When the locals did try their hand at resistance, they discovered that their weapons were inferior. They did have some rare successes — the most notable being Brian Boru's decisive victory at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 — and even managed to drive out the foreigners twice but only for short periods. By the time of Boru's victory it was probably already too late — the Vikings had settled all around the country. By the early 900s, the Vikings had settlements at Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Wexford and Waterford. These became the first Irish towns. The Danes had married local women and settled in Ireland. In an indication of how thoroughly they had become entrenched, they had even managed to establish Ireland's first mint in Dublin in 995. Dublin generally regards 888 as the year of its foundation. They developed trade links inside and outside the country and integrated totally to the extent that they fought one another in the clan skirmishes in support of whichever chieftain they happened to be loyal to at the time. Page last updated 8 Mar 2006 Ireland's OWN Logo by Eamann Website Design and Celtic Background  by Míchealín Ní Dhochartaigh Copyright © 2006 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.