The cloister of the Abbey of St. Mary, Iona
The colorful sails of Viking longboats first appeared in Ireland in 795 CE. The monastic settlement of Iona was first to taste the ruthless efficiency of the Norse raiders, in 795, then in 802, and again in 806 when sixty-eight monks were killed by the Northmen. From the time of these first raids until the defeat of the Norse and their Leinster allies at Clontarf at the hands of Brian Bóruma in 1014, the Viking influence on Ireland would be a powerful one.
In 841 Vikings founded a permanent settlement at the mouth of the River Liffey on the east central coast. This rugged settlement was the foundation for the city of Dublin. Similar bases were established at Waterford in 914 and at Limerick in 922. These bases— at first probably no more than rude wooden stockades built around beached longboats— were to eventually become important trading centers. They would also be the prototypical urban centers in Ireland and the first breach of the exclusively rural pattern of prior Irish history.
In the political turmoil of early medieval Ireland, Dublin would remain a separate kingdom ruled by a Norse king from 853 (when the dynasty of Olaf was created)until long after the final dissolution of Viking political power in 1014, a period of more than 160 years.
Native Irish resistance to the Norse invaders was far from uniform or implacable. The complex political situation of a fragmented Ireland throughout this period made for many shifting and ephemeral alliances between the numerous Irish factions and the Norse. In fact, during the final period of intense struggle from 978 until the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, the political scene was characterized by a bewildering maze of alliance and opposition: Irish against Viking, Irish against Irish, and Viking against Viking.
But by the beginning of the eleventh century the Irish were in a much better military position than they had been in the early year of the Norse arrival. They had adopted many of the military methods of the Norse: heavy swords for close-in combat, armor, and reasonably ordered infantry and cavalry tactics. Further, the recent successes of Brian would result in the yielding to him in 1002 of Máel Sechnaill, King of Tara and sacker of Norse Dublin, which for all practical purposes made Brian the first King of all Ireland. His victory over the Norse in 1014 would substantially end their power in Ireland. It should be borne in mind, however ironic it may be, that the Normans who arrived 153 years later took their name and lineage from those same Northmen.
The Viking period in Ireland lasted about 220 years, with the period of strongest influence lasting a mere 140 years— from the establishment of Dublin until its sack by the King of Tara. But aspects of Irish culture, linguistics, and politics would be influenced for all time by the Norse presence.
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More about the Norse in Ireland can be learned from the following references... Johannes Bronsted, The Vikings (Penguin Books, 1960). P. G. Foote, The Viking Achievement (London, 1970). Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings (Oxford, 1968). P. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings (London, 1971). Donncha Ó Corráin, Ireland before the Normans (Dublin, 1972). Brian Ó Cuiv, The Impact of the Scandinavian Invasions on the Celtic-speaking Peoples, 800-1100 (Dublin, 1975).