Knotwork Kingdoms: Part I

Viking Presence and Activity in Ireland

Ireland is, without a shadow of a doubt, a nation of resilience. Almost since humans first occupied the island in prehistory, the people have contended against those who wished to subjugate, control, and exploit them. And yet, in all of that history, the Irish have never balked in the face of foreign aggression. Their story has been a story of resistance and defiance, and the Early Medieval Period was no different.

At the time that the shadow of the Viking threat had just begun to loom over Irish shores, the socio-political climate of the Island was perhaps the most complex and tumultuous of anywhere the medieval Norse had yet set foot.

“By the middle of the eighth century the dominant Irish dynasty was that of the Ui Neill clan, but everywhere there were other families and other loyalties, vying for a say. Every king wanted to be the High King, with power over all others, and the ceaseless warring had given rise to a dizzyingly complicated pecking order that dictated just who owed loyalty to whom.” - Neil Oliver, The Vikings: A New History

This atmosphere of insular infighting and political turmoil was, in the beginning, advantageous to the first of the Viking raiders to set their sights on the island, as it made their standard tactics of hit-and-run raiding against rich, but poorly defended targets all the easier to execute.