![]() Turgeis established himself as lord of Dublin (the “Dark Pool”), previously a Christian ecclesiastical settlement but which now became a Norse military settlement. Turgeis raided deep into Ireland, attacking the chief religious center of the land, Armagh where he drove out the Bishop, who fled with relics of St. He arrived in 839, leading “a great sea-cast flood of foreigners into Eire, so that there was not a point (along the coast) thereof without a (Viking) fleet”. The first great Viking lord in Ireland was Turgeis ( Thorgis?). Most of those who first raided Ireland were Norsemen (from Norway), who the Irish called the fionngaill (“fair strangers”), to distinguish them from the other nation of Vikings, the Danes or dubhgaill (“dark strangers”)*. The greatest of these settlements, Dublin, is today Ireland’s national capital and greatest city. The Scandinavians came to Ireland not only as merciless Viking raiders, but as settlers founding towns and trade centers along the coast and inland waterways. Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin all began as Norse (or Danish) settlements. Norse settlements and fortified bases ( longphorts) soon dotted the coasts and major river-ways. In a land so divided a relatively small numbers of aggressive Vikings were able to work great mischief, taking advantage of the lack of central authority and playing one Irish ruler against another. Though there was a High King who, in theory, exercised a position as primus inter pares (first among equals) over the other petty kings his authority depended solely on the strength of his personality and the number of swords whose loyalty he could command. Ireland was a divided land, made up of warring clans and kingdoms, ruled by some 150 different petty kings. By contrast, the Vikings were often veteran warriors, who fought in close order, “a solid, skillful, and firm rampart of strong coats of mail like a thick, dark stronghold of black iron with a battle-wall of gleaming shields around their chiefs.” These Vikings were perhaps the first iron-clad, mailed warriors the Irish had ever encountered: the defending Gaelic warriors “had nothing to defend their bodies… save only elegant tunics, shields, and finely wrought collars” who fought as light infantry in loose-formation. As throughout western Europe, longships crammed with veteran warriors bent on rapine and plunder descended on the coastal settlements and raided deep into the countryside, bringing death and destruction to the unwary inhabitants. ![]() The Vikings first began raiding Ireland in the late 8th century. ![]() The battle that resulted changed the course of Irish history forever! At stake was the nascent unification of the island under its first true king, Brian Boru and the future influence of the Vikings, who had settled and meddled in Ireland for nearly two centuries. On Good Friday, Apjust north of Dublin a momentous and bloody battle was fought. ![]()
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