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Brian Boru and Dynastic Upheaval

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St Patrick and the Coming of Christianity
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Christianity, with its origins in Palestine, spread into Ireland in the 400s. The first missionary was Palladius, who came in 431. He was followed a few years later by St Patrick. Patrick had previously been in Ireland working as a slave, but had escaped to Gaul where he became a Christian Priest. He heard the people of Ireland calling him to come back, so he did, which was either in 432 or in the 460s. His mission was very successful and he set up churches across north and eastern Ireland and even preached to the king who ruled Tara.

The spark that had been lit by Patrick and his contemporaries took hold, and Ireland developed a network of thousands of churches. In the 500s, some Christians sought a life of solitude from everyday life and this led to the setting up of monasteries. These were initially small sites in remote locations consisting of small church and individual huts for the monks. (Map of monasteries). However, the monasteries soon attracted the patronage of the rich and powerful and they grew in influence until they were eventually as poweful as the individual tuaths (petty kingdoms). Many of the monasteries produced famous hand-written illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells which can be seen at Trinity College, Dublin. Thus Ireland became a land of saints and scholars. Their influence spread outside Ireland. St Colum Cille and his followers brought Christianity to Scotland in 563 and northern England by 627. St Columbanus travelled through modern-day Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy setting up churches.

The people in Ireland were still the same Celts that had lived there before, only they were now largely Christian. In pre-Christian times, Ireland had been divided into over 100 small kingdoms, or tuaths. As time went on a small number of kings emerged as the most powerful and gained the allegiance of surrounding kings. The area ruled by one of these powerful kings was a province. By the 700s it was no longer common to call the rulers of tuaths kings. Instead, they were increasingly referred to as lords. In 650 there were 6 provinces in Ireland: Airgialla (Oriel), Connacht, Laigin (Leinster), Munster, Uí Néill and Ulaid (Ulster). The period 400-800 was characterised by the expansion of Airgialla, then the Uí Néill and finally Connacht. Meanwhile, England had been taken over by the Anglo-Saxons from Denmark.

Society was heavily tiered. The King of a Province had a large number of lords under him. These lords in turn gave animals to commoners, who repaid him with food produce. Near the bottom of the ladder were the landless men who were hired by commoners or the monasteries and finally the slaves. Slavery was common in Ireland, as was polygamy. This early Christian era is often regarded as being a "golden age", disturbed only by inter-Provincial wars. However this relative stability was soon to be shattered by the arrival of bands of marauding Vikings.

The Vikings in Ireland
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The Vikings were groups of warriors from Scandanavia who raided Britain, Ireland and northern France for booty and slaves. They attacked Ireland in two waves. The first began in 795 when a band of Viking raiders ransacked Rathlin Island monastery, on the north coast. More monasteries and civilian settlements were attacked over the next 40 years. Attracted by the large amount of booty and slaves that could be had in the largely defenseless monasteries, ecclesiastical sites became favoured targets. After 834, the Vikings intensified their raids by landing more boats and building a camp to let them stay longer. They raided far inland and up rivers. In 840 they spent the first entire year in Ireland, in the lands of the northern Uí Néill. Some of their encampments became permanent trading towns, most notably Dubhlinn [Dublin], Vadrefjord [Waterford] and Cork. The Irish Kings tried to attack the Vikings, but without much success. However, just as it looked as if Ireland would be defeated the raids stopped around 851. The Vikings had turned their attention to carving out a kingdom of their own in northern Britain. Over the next few decades the Irish managed to drive the Vikings out of all their coastal settlements.

The raids began again in 914, however. The Vikings re-captured Vadrefjord and, 3 years later, Dubhlinn was once again in their hands. In 917 they began major raids deep into Munster and Laigin. The most powerful king in Ireland, Niall Glúndub of the Uí Néill, mustered a large army against the Vikings in Munster but was defeated by them. Two years later he himself was killed in an unsuccessful attack on Dubhlinn. After 920, the Vikings founded two further towns: Weisfjord [Wexford] and Limerick. After 950, the second - and last - epsode of Viking raids ended. The Vikings settled down in their towns around the Irish coast and became traders. Dubhlinn thrived as a major merchant centre and soon exercised control over the other Viking towns in Ireland. After 952, Dubhlinn even had its own Kings.

Dynastically, the Uí Néill were the most powerful kings in Ireland by the end of the Viking period. They had conquered all of northern Ireland and exercised control over Laigin to the south-east. By 950 they had formed a single united kingdom that controlled half the island. Later the kings of the Uí Néill would be called the first High Kings of Ireland. While this is not really true - Connacht and Munster were outside their control - they were probably the most powerful kings in Irish history up to that point.

The effects of the Vikings should not be exaggerated. Viking raids were far from everyday occurrences, and in general life continued as normal. However, some changes were needed. Ringfort dwellings for the commoners gave way to more easily-defended underground souterrains. And the monasteries developed round towers in which to hide when Vikings were on the prowl. Today, many intact round towers can still be seen. Finally, the famous high crosses - crosses carved from stone - were constructed in the Viking period. More information, maps and photographs on the more detailed pages.

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Bookshop - Books on pre-Norman Ireland
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Brian Boru and Dynastic Upheaval