Early Scandinavian Dublin
Over the following decades the raiding parties became bigger and better organized; inland settlements were targeted as well as coastal ones; and the raiders built naval encampments known as longphorts to allow them to remain in Ireland throughout the winter.
The wavering fortunes of these three groups and their shifting alliances, together with the shortcomings of contemporary records and the inaccuracy of later accounts, make this period one of the most complicated and least understood in the fledgling city's history.
[1] This was the beginning of a new phase of Irish history, which saw many native communities – particularly ecclesiastical ones – relocate themselves on the continent, or further afield in places like Iceland and the Faroe Islands, to escape the pagan marauders.
[6] It is now thought that these early raids were launched directly from southwest Norway, and that during the period of calm (814–820) the Norwegian Vikings were occupied in northern Britain, laying the foundations of a new kingdom referred to in Irish sources as Laithlind (later Lochlainn).
[9] But the pattern of attacks had begun to change: raiding parties became larger and better organised; inland settlements were targeted as well as the more vulnerable maritime ones; and naval encampments were established to allow the marauders to remain in Ireland throughout the winter.
[33] In the same year Tigernach mac Fócartai King of Loch Gabhair (Lagore, the royal seat of South Brega) inflicted a significant defeat on the Norsemen in an oakwood at Dísert Do-Chonna.
[41] Whatever their provenance, the Dubgaill defeated the Norsemen of Dublin and destroyed their settlement; in the same year they raided the longphort at Lind Dúachaill (Linns, near Annagassan in County Louth) and slaughtered the Findgaill.
[49] Like so many other Scandinavian characters in this period of Irish history, Amlaíb's precise identity is still uncertain, though he is probably the same person as Amhlaoibh Conung (Óláfr konungr, or Olaf the King), who is mentioned in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland.
[64] In the same year, however, at the royal Synod of Ráith Aeda Meic Bric (Rahugh, County Westmeath, in the territory of the Cenél Fiachach), a temporary peace was made between the contending parties.
In 860 Máel Sechnaill and Cerball took up arms against Áed Findliath and another of the High King's principal enemies, Flann mac Conaing of Brega, defeating them (though not decisively) at Moy near Armagh.
In 863 Lorcán, Amlaíb, Ímar and Auisle invaded Flann mac Conaing's kingdom of Brega, during which invasion they plundered the megalithic tombs in the Boyne Valley, an unprecedented act of sacrilege.
[88] In 870 Amlaíb and Ímar besieged Ail Cluaithe, or Dumbarton, the capital of Strathclyde; they captured the stronghold following a four-month siege,[84] and returned to Dublin in 871 with a great deal of plunder.
[89] Later that year they stormed the fortress of Dún Sobairche or Dunseverick in County Antrim with the assistance of the Cenél nEógain, whose leader was the High King Áed Findliath.
[93] In 866, when Amlaíb and Auisle were invading Fortriu, Flann mac Conaing King of Brega took advantage of their absence to exact revenge for their invasion of 863, inflicting a significant defeat on the Norsemen.
[101] This raid was possibly launched in retaliation for the death of his son Carlus, who had lost his life the previous year fighting for the kings of Leinster and Brega against Áed Findliath (the protector of Armagh) in the Battle of Cella Ua nDaigri (Killineer, County Louth).
[103] In the same year, a leader of the Dubgaill called Úlfr invaded eastern Ireland and killed Máel Sechnaill mac Néill, one of the two kings of South Brega .
[108] This cause of death is not mentioned in any other source, but it raises the interesting possibility that it was the crippling effects of this unidentified disease that led to Ímar's Old Norse sobriquet Ívarr inn beinlausi, or Ivar the Boneless.
[133] It has been suggested that the death in 888 of Cerball mac Dúnlainge, who may have been the true overlord of Dublin at this time, acted as a catalyst for Flann Sinna's attempt to conquer the city.
[137] In 893 another conflict arose and the ruling dynasty in Dublin split into two factions, one led by Sitric and the other by a pretender called Sigfrith the Jarl (Old Norse: Sigfrøðr or Sigurðr).
[143] In the same year "Amlaíb grandson of Ímar" and Glúniarann's son Glúntradna were slain by the Conaille Muirthemne of County Louth and Aitíth mac Laigni the King of Ulster.
[149] Some of the ousted Norsemen fled to Wales under Hingamund (Old Norse: Ingimundr), a shadowy figure who may have usurped Ivar II's throne shortly before the fall of Dublin.
Hingamund was driven out of Wales and eventually settled in the Wirral in the northwest of England, where he was granted lands by Æðelflæd the Queen of Mercia, who was acting as regent for her chronically ill husband Æthelred.
The pioneering 19th-century historian Charles Haliday bewailed the silence of contemporary Irish sources "respecting the social position, religion, laws, and monuments of those who occupied Dublin for more than three hundred years on all facts ... excepting such as relate to their inroads and devastations".
Most of these burials were accompanied by typical Viking grave goods – swords, spear-heads, shields, daggers, penannular brooches and various decorative items – including hacksilver (i.e. small pieces of silver cut from coins or jewellery and used as currency).
A wealth of contemporary documentary evidence serves to confirm that throughout the second half of the 9th century Viking Dublin was a successful and thriving settlement from which numerous raids were launched throughout the country.
The discovery of what are thought to be late 9th-century earthen banks in Ross Road and Werburgh Street (immediately west of Dublin Castle) lends some support to this theory.
[161] The other possibility is that the longphort was situated on the eastern or southern side of the Black Pool, and that Norse settlement began here, expanding northwards and westwards across the Poddle in the late 9th century.
These later dwellings are now identified as Type I houses, characterised by the possession of a central hearth flanked by two raised benches or bedding areas, a roof supported by four internal posts, and a doorway at each end of the building.
The four burials excavated near South Great George's Street were also associated with domestic habitations, suggesting that the deceased had been members of a settled Norse community and not the fatalities suffered by a transient raiding party.
The annals are silent as to the ultimate fate of the latter settlement and its community – no Abbot or Bishop of Dublin is mentioned after 785; the possibility remains that it was abandoned in the late 8th century before the arrival of the Norsemen, who simply annexed it and built their longphort on the site.
