The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Irela^id before the ConqtiesL 49
IRELAND BEFORE THE CONQUEST.
A.D. 1014-1172. THE EFFECTS OF THE BATTLE OF CLONTARFF.
CONTESTS FOR THE SUPERIOR KINGSHIP.
THE
Battle of Clontarff, like its hero Brian, has always
occupied a large place in the recollection and
imagination of the Irish. Their later historians and, fol-
lowing them, writers of other countries speak of it as if its
consequence had been the final destruction of the Danish
power in Ireland, and sometimes, indeed, as if it had led to
the absolute expulsion of these foreigners from the country.
On the other hand, the annalists treat it very much as one
of the ordinary incidents in the drama of battle and murder
of which the history of the country, according to them, is
mainly made up. The truth apparently is that it was
really a turning point in the history of Ireland and of its
colonists and invaders. There can be no doubt that the
great collection to Dublin of Norsemen from, all parts of
Scandinavia and the islands under Scandinavian rule, and
the " din " which the preparations for the great battle
created all over the north, meant more than a mere effort
to defend Dublin from attack ;
and if the fate of the battle
had been other than it was, it is more than probable that a
great effort, at least, would have been made to conquer
Ireland, and to bring it under the same subjection to
Scandinavian rule as then prevailed in Man, the Western
Isles, Orkney and Shetland, the Northern Counties of
Scotland, and Northumberland. It would appear, too,
that in this great effort the force of the Viking element
in the Norsemen exhausted itself. We hear of no more
arrivals of foreigners in Ireland, nor of any invasions or
attempts at invasion, except on one occasion, in i [03,
when Magnus, King of Norway, appeared on the coast
4