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18 .
THE
BOOK i. Breagh," they
Cn L
!l Sinainn to the sea," 1
SCANDINAVIANS, AND
defeated "the Ui Neill from the
Arrival of TUT- In A.D. 815, however, " Turgesius, a powerful Xor-
bi5.
u *'
wegian chieftain, landed," and from that time it i
corded that the foreigners began to form settlements
in Ireland. 2
Nevertheless, the same system of plunder
and bloodshed, which marked the earlier invasions,
we find records
long continued ; and, year after year,
of outrages by those Scandinavians, whose flu-
infested our coasts.
The "Dubh-
Throughout these records of plunder and devastaghoill
and the
Finnghoiii." ^ion there is no intimation who the invaders were, or
whence they came. The Irish gave to those invaders
who came one common name of "Gaill," 3 or foreigners,
no distinction appearing in the Annals of the Four
Masters before A.D. 847, when it is stated that " a fleet
of seven score ships of the king of the foreigners came
to contend with the foreigners who were in Ireland
before them." 4
After the arrival of this fleet, and the
commencement of the contest which followed, two
tribes are recognised, and as enemies to each other
the " Dubhghoill "
(or Black t < >
foreigners), supposed
be Danes, and the "Finnghoiii" (or White foreigners),
supposed to be Norwegians.
Auiaff of the In A .D . 849, "the Dubhghoill arrived at Ath Cliath,
Dubhghoill
founds Dublin, and made a great slaughter of the Finnghoiii, 6 who
A T> ft*)!?
had settled there." In the same year there was
" another depredation of the Dubhghoil on the Finn-
i [7rf., Sinain, the Shannon.] sequently they are called Diilili
*
[Ogygia, Part iii.,c. 93, p. 433. Lochlunnaigh and Finn Loch-
3 Ann. 4 Mast., A. n. 790, 793, 797. lannaigh.
In the Annals of Ulster they are
termed "Gentiles," or Tagans; sub-
4
Id., A.D. 847.
5
Id., A.D. 849.