Clontarf in the Wider World

Sitric Silkenbeard, king of Dublin, might be turning in his grave if he knew how much historians focus on his arch-rival, Brian. Popular claims that Brian expelled the foreigners from Ireland nearly airbrushed the remainder of Sitric’s reign from popular memory. Nevertheless, Sitric, who came to power in the early 990s, tenaciously held his position … Read more

Tuamgraney church

Of any extant building, the church at Tuamgraney, Co. Clare, is arguably the one that provides us with our most tan-gible link to Brian Boru. Tuamgraney was one of the most significant ecclesiastical sites in the home territory of the Dál Cais. The western part of the church is pre-Romanesque, and it is generally agreed … Read more

Ireland in the Viking Age

We should not underrate the very real power of the Norse, and their physical and psychological impact upon the Irish people. Scholarship on the Vikings in Ireland, impressed (as we must be) by the technology of their ships and long swords and axes, has emphasised their technical superiority. This was allied to a superficial examination … Read more

Technology

The Irish had borrowed much from the Romans—brooches, pins, barrel padlocks, sickles, ploughshares, the furnace and eventually the watermill. Such borrowing was not passive. Recent excavations throw light on this. A crop-processing complex was discovered at Curtaun, Co. Galway (during work on the N18 Gort to Crusheen road scheme). The grain-drying kiln was close to … Read more