Yet despite the threat posed by these Scandinavian incursions, the internecine warring among the Irish continued as before, and the newcomers were inevitably drawn in. In 933 Matudan mac Hugh of the Ulaid raided Monaghan with Norse allies but was routed by the Uí Néill (Matudan is commemorated in Ben Madigan, now Cave Hill, overlooking Belfast). In 942 the Norse raided Downpatrick, but were defeated after a pursuit by the Ulaid. The following year the Ulaid of Lecale exterminated the Norse of Strangford Lough. In 949 Matudan made the fatal mistake of plundering the Cruthin of Conailli Muirthemne in Louth. The affront was avenged by the Iveagh Cruthin when they slew Matudan a year later.

The early raiding of these Scandinavian invaders gave way to the establishment of permanent settlements, the development of trade and commerce, and the founding of such centres as Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Wicklow, Cork and Limerick. Despite this important contribution to Irish society, the Viking period is still regarded in the popular imagination as one of depredation and pillage. As Estyn Evans commented: “However much historians differ, there has been a tacit understanding that the “Celtic” invasion was somehow ‘good’… We have no record of what the natives thought about it. The Viking invasion on the other hand was ‘bad’: it came late enough for its misdeeds to be documented.” Yet, if we consider the burning and pillaging of churches attributed to the Vikings by early Irish propagandists, it has been asserted that at least half of these, from the 7th century to the 16th, were perpetrated by the Irish themselves, not only before the Vikings came, but long after the Scandinavians were absorbed into Irish society.

At the battle of Hastings in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, a descendant of Norse settlers in France, defeated the Anglo-Saxons and commenced the Norman conquest of England. It would not be long before these Normans (Nor(d)manns) set foot in Ireland, though, ironically, not by ‘invasion’, but by ‘invitation’. Another irony, as Lewis Warren points out, is that, despite the dramatic effect these new arrivals were to have on Irish history, “The English suffered more from the Normans than the Irish ever did. In Domesday Book there is no trace of the great families which had ruled England before 1066; in Ireland the leading families whose names are familiar from long before the Normans arrived are still there four hundred years later.”

In 1169 the first ‘Anglo-Normans’ arrived on Irish soil, at the request of Dermot Mac Murchada, deposed King of Leinster, who sought their aid in a bid to regain his kingship. The first to arrive were Norman knights like Fitzstephen and then Fitzgerald, and eventually families such as these would become ‘more Irish than the Irish’. The main contingent arrived with Strongbow (Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke) on 23 August 1170 at Waterford. Although these new arrivals are generally termed ‘Anglo-Norman’, it should be remembered that the Norman conquest of England and Wales was a relatively recent one. There the Norman French had many Old British (Brêtons) among them whose heritage was similar to the Welsh among whom they settled, and was expressed romantically in the Arthurian Chronicles. In actuality, therefore, Strongbow’s force was a Cambro-Norman one, and far from ‘English’ in either culture, language or composition.

Henry II was concerned with the growing independence of his supposed followers in Ireland. He arrived in Ireland to set matters straight, making his barons swear loyalty and then parcelling out the country between them and the Irish chieftains. As Lewis Warren commented: “Henry II had no intention of conquering Ireland; he wanted to stop the Normans doing it. He made a treaty with the High King by which he was to have charge of the Normans and Rory [O’Connor, king of Connaught] was to mind the Irish… Significantly he never included Ireland among his lordships. He was king of England, duke of Normandy, count of Anjou and duke of Aquitaine. That is how he styled himself: Ireland was not a welcome acquisition; it was a nuisance.”

In 1177 one of the baronial adventurers, John de Courcy, marched north and captured Downpatrick. What the Gaelic chieftains had begun but not completed — the final end to Ulster’s independence — was now to be accomplished by de Courcy, who made himself ‘Master of Ulster’ (princeps Ultoniae). Although he owed fealty to Henry II of England, this title was purely of de Courcy’s own making. The Ulidian king, Mac Donleavy, still officially remained ‘Rex Ulidiae’. De Courcy’s greatest achievements were the establishment of towns and ports and the building of two fine castles, at Carrickfergus and Dundrum. At first strongly opposed by the Ulstermen, de Courcy’s government was soon seen by them to offer some degree of protection against continuing attacks by the O’Neills. In 1181 the Clan Owen “gained a battle over the Ulidians, and over Uí Tuirtri, and over Fir-Li around Rory Mac Donleavy and Cumee O’Flynn.”

A descendant of Rory, J P Donleavy, wrote The Ginger Man, considered by The Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels. First published in Paris in 1955, it was once banned in the Republic of Ireland and The United States of America. Perhaps we will still see a film adaptation starring Johnny Depp. The material you are now reading was also once destined for burning by the Irish Academic Establishment. Increasing raids by the Clan Owen in which they “took many thousands of cows” forced the Ulidians to appeal to de Courcy for help. And so, when the O Neills and their kin made their next raid in 1182, they were met and defeated by de Courcy in alliance with the Ulidians. De Courcy’s independent rule in Ulster now aroused the jealousy of Hugh de Lacy, who misrepresented the Master of Ulster to the new King John of England. Following this de Courcy fell into disfavour, and was defeated by de Lacy at Downpatrick. Finally, on 29 May, 1205, King John granted de Lacy all of de Courcy’s lands, and created him Earl of Ulster. De Lacy and his half-brother Walter soon showed John that he had mistaken his men, for by 1208 they were at war with ‘the English of Munster’, and proved more insubordinate than the Irish themselves.

To be continued