In AD 684 an episode unique in Irish history occurred: a major military expedition by Anglo-Saxon forces. As with all historical events of this period, the details are sparse. The raid was on the Irish kingdom of Brega (roughly present-day County Meath) and was a naval attack probably launched via the Isle of Man, then … Read more
Northumbria was the largest and most powerful of England’s seventh-century patchwork of independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, although in decline from the 670s. Of the five Northumbrian kings who ruled between 632 and 704, four had been ‘raised amongst the Irish’, as Bede puts it, and spoke Irish. All five were from the Bernician dynasty, which had … Read more
Established in 1947 by the Irish government in collaboration with a committee of professional historians and former Irish Volunteers, the purpose of the Bureau of Military History was ‘to assemble and coordinate material to form the basis for the compilation of the history of the movement for independence from the formation of the Irish Volunteers … Read more