Irish Nationality

								

there was respect and good-will.
The enterprise of the sea-rovers and the merchant settlers created on
Irish shores two Scandinavian "kingdoms"--kingdoms rather of the sea
than of the land. The Norsemen set up their moot on the Mound over the
river Liffey (near where the Irish Parliament House rose in later
days), and there created a naval power which reached along the coast
from Waterford to Dundalk. The Dublin kingdom was closely connected
with the Danish kingdom of Northumbria, which had its capital at York,
and formed the common meeting-ground, the link which united the
Northmen of Scandinavia and the Northmen of Ireland. A mighty
confederation grew up. Members of the same house were kings in Dublin,
in Man, and in York. The Irish Channel swarmed with their fleets. The
sea was the common highway which linked the powers together, and the
sea was held by fleets of swift long-ships with from ninety to a
hundred and fifty rowers or fighting men on board. Dublin, the
rallying-point of roving marauders, became the centre of a wide-flung
war. Its harbour, looking east, was the mart of the merchant princes
of the Baltic trade: there men of Iceland and of Norway landed with
their merchandise or their plunder.
"Limerick of the swift ships," "Limerick of the riveted stones," the
kingdom lying on the Atlantic was a rival even to Dublin; kings of the
same house ruled in Limerick and the Hebrides, and their fleets took
the way of the wide ocean; while Norse settlements scattered over
Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary, organised as Irish clans and giving an
Irish form to their names, maintained the inland trade. Other Munster
harbours were held, some by the Danes, some by the Irish.
The Irish were on good terms with the traders. They learned to build
the new ships invented by the Scandinavians where both oars and sails
were used, and traded in their own ports for treasures from oversea,
silken raiment and abundance of wine. We read in 900 of Irishmen along
the Cork shores "high in beauty, whose resolve is quiet prosperity,"
and in 950 of "Munster of the great riches," "Munster of the swift
ships."
On the other hand, the Irish never ceased from war with the sea-kings.
From the time of Thorgils, high-kings of Tara one after another led
the perpetual contest to hold Ireland and to possess Dublin. They
summoned assemblies in north and south of the confederated chiefs. The
Irish copied not only the Scandinavian building of war-ships, but
their method of raising a navy by dividing the coast into districts,
each of which had to equip and man ten ships, to assemble at the
summons for the united war-fleet. Every province seems to have had its
fleet. The Irish, in fact, learned their lesson so well that they were
able to undertake the re-conquest of their country, and become leaders
of Danish and Norse troops in war. The spirit of the people rose
high. From 900 their victories increased even amid disaster. Strong