History of Dublin to 795
Furthermore, Dublin Bay provided early settlers with a substantial and easily defended harbour, protected to some extent by treacherous sandbanks, shallows and mudflats, and overlooked by the twin sentinels of Howth Head and Killiney Hill.
Stone axes made of porcellanite from County Antrim or porphyry from Lambay Island have also been discovered at a number of sites in the Dublin region.
[4] Pottery too was first manufactured in Ireland during the Neolithic, one of the most noteworthy finds being a funerary bowl which was found in a burial site at Drimnagh, County Dublin.
There is little archaeological evidence to support the theory of a large-scale Celtic invasion (or series of invasions), but it is quite possible that small groups of migrants, highly skilled in the art of war and armed with superior iron weaponry, were powerful enough to gain a foothold in the island and eventually succeeded in subjugating or absorbing the pre-Celtic natives; in the 12th century small bands of heavily armed Anglo-Normans did just this, so there is no conceivable reason why it could not also have happened in the pre-Christian era.
Needless to say the growth of the modern city has all but obliterated these structures, but excavation of ringforts in other parts of the country has sometimes revealed traces of earlier, pre-ringfort occupation of the same sites.
The Book of Invasions, a largely fabulous compilation of myths and legends, mentions Dublin when describing how two legendary kings of Ireland, Conn of the Hundred Battles and Mug Nuadat, divided the country between them.
Located on a prominent ridge overlooking the River Liffey (previously known as the Ruirthech, "running swiftly"), this settlement was easily defended and ideally situated to take advantage of the ford, which lay just 100 metres away.
The name ford of hurdles – Áth Cliath in Irish – suggests that, to facilitate travellers who wished to cross the river dry-shod during low tide, the inhabitants of this settlement constructed a lattice-work of interlaced osiers – hurdles – and secured it to the muddy bed of the river, perhaps making use of the fortuitously placed Usher's Island in the middle of the stream.
The existence of this unnamed road suggests that the Slige Midluachra originally by-passed Tara, running north from Dublin to Emain Macha.
After the introduction of Christianity a wayside chapel dedicated to St Mo Lua appears to have been erected at this junction, though the earliest reference to such a church is of a much later date.
The existence of other early ringforts in the vicinity of Áth Cliath may be deduced from the names of several of the modern city's suburbs: Rathmines, Rathgar, Rathfarnham and Raheny, though no firm dates can be assigned to any of these.
By the early 7th century Áth Cliath had acquired a neighbour in the form of a large and important ecclesiastical settlement about half a kilometre to the southeast.
Referred to in various annals and martyrologies as Duiblinn (Modern Irish Dubhlinn, or "Blackpool"), it took its name from a dark tidal pool in the River Poddle a short distance to the north.
Covering an area of about 5 hectares, Dubhlinn was one of the largest settlements of its kind in the country, and shared its distinctive pear-shaped outline with hundreds of other ecclesiastical or quasi-ecclesiastical enclosures of the time.
In 795, just ten years after his death, the Vikings, or Norsemen, launched their first raid on Irish soil: a new era in the history of Dublin was about to begin.
