Ireland around 650.

One of the most important works of the Irish monasteries, besides catering for the needs of the local population, was in the production of books. These are the great illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells, which were hand written copies of the Bible and other books. Beautifully decorated by hand, these books were usually written in Latin, which was introduced by Patrick. The Latin alphabet was also introduced, replacing the more awkward Ogham scripts. Although Latin was the language of education, Celtic-Irish remained the language of everyday life.

Irish Influences in Europe

As Ireland's monastic establishments grew, they became centres of learning as well as of evangelism. It is for this reason that Ireland has been termed the land of "Saints and Scholars". After Colum Cille, and his evangelical successor Aidan, had set up the monasteries in Scotland and Northumbria (northern England), the Irish turned their attention to southern England. St Fursa preached in East Anglia (eastern England) in the 6th century before travelling to Gaul (France) and setting up churches there. St Columbanus, of Bangor Monastery in northern Ireland, went to Gaul in 591 and founded 2 monasteries in France before travelling through modern Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He is buried in a Monastery he founded at Bobbio, in northern Italy. By the 9th century, Irish scholars followed the missionaries and managed to gain important academic roles in the courts of Kings such as Charlemagne of the Franks. Irish foundations can be found in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy and their influence was been left in places as far afield as Vienna, Rome and eastern Germany.

Dynastic Changes

Of course, all through the early Christian period, the dynastic quarrels between the Celtic kings of Ireland continued. The Provinces were groups of kings who had submitted their tuath to the authority of one of the other kings. This king was the king of the province. Around the time of St Patrick, the Ulaid ruled must of northern Ireland, Munster was in the south, Laigin was in the south-east and Connacht was in the west. The Ui Neill ruled an area from central-eastern Ireland to the north-western corner.

The southern Ui Neill spent the early Christian period expanding eastwards at the expense of Laigin. The power of the Ulaid, whose capital was at Emain Macha (near Armagh), was slowly diminished by the "Three Collas" who drove them out of their western lands and set up the Province of Airgialla (also known as Oriel). Airgialla eventually captured Emain Macha. In response to being driven eastwards, some of the Ulaid founded a colony in Scotland. This is the colony of the Dal Riata (see Celtic Iron Age for details).

By the early 700s, the spread of Christianity and continued growth of the concept of a 'province' meant that the Kings of individual tuaths ceased to be regarded as kings, and were referred to increasingly as dukes or lords. The provinces evolved from being federations of dozens of tuaths, to being more closely knit units whose king was from one of the more prominent families. It became more common, then, for there to be dynastic disputes within provinces over which family held the kingship. A province can be almost regarded as an independent country, although without the well-delineated borders of today.

The period 700-850 marks the growth in the influence of the Ui Neill. Their northern half was dominated by the Cenel nEoghan dynasty, who lived in the east of the territory and they went on the offensive against the province of Airgialla, driving them out of their northern territories over the century 750-850. By 804, the Ui Neill had become the protectors of the monastery of Armagh. Meanwhile, the southern Ui Neill penetrated further into Laigin in the period 700-800, driving them out of the Boyne valley and taking control of the royal site of Tara.

In the 700s, the power of Connaght rose dramatically, and they began to expand eastwards, further dividing the northern and southern Ui Neill and founding the secondary province of Breifne around present-day Cavan and Leitrim. This had the additional effect of splitting the Ui Neill into two parts, referred to simply as the Northern Ui Neill and the Southern Ui Neill.

It was around about this time that the kings of Ireland began to realise that it might be possible to extend control over the entire island - a concept not previously considered. This gave rise to the term High King and, although nobody could yet legitimally use the term, it did not stop the Ui Neill eyeing it up.

Everyday Life in early Christian Ireland

Society in Early Christian Ireland was heavily tiered. At the top of society was the kings. Laterally, these were the rulers of the large Provinces. They lived in large enclosures, often fortified, and had a large retinue of staff. The kings maintained their position by ensuring the loyality of the lords in their province, although it was not unknown for a lord to challenge the sitting king for the position. Below the kings were the lords. The lords were the heads of the individual tuaths, which had been independent kingdoms in the pre-Christian period. A lord owed allegiance to the king, and usually paid his dues in the form of military service. It was not common for the peasantry to engage in warfare. Some lords may have lived in crannogs, which are artificial islands built from wood in lakes. Easily defended, but hard to build, crannogs were apparently built in two intense phases of 420-650 and 720-930. Some crannogs survive, but many have been destroyed by drainage schemes. There is an excellent reconstructed crannog at the Ulster History Park, near Omagh, in county Tyrone.

Below the lords were the commoners - grad Fhene in Irish. Commoners were attached to a lord by clientship - celsine in Irish - which was similar to medieval feudalism. The landlord gave the commoner a payment and a certain number of animals and in return the commoner gave various food products to the lord at regular intervals. For the lord, having many clients increased his prestige and ensured a steady supply of food. For the client, it provided a source of food and protection. It was not without its perks. By law, the commoner was entitled to one night's feasting at the lord's residence each year - not a trivial expense. In general, extended families lived together in early Christian Ireland. The poorer commoners would have lived in wooden houses in the open countryside. Wealthier commoners would have built their houses within an earthen enclosure about 30 metres (100 feet) in diameter. So-called ringforts are amongst the most common historical features in Ireland, and are readily identifiable. There are almost 50,000 known examples although these are being rapidly destroyed by urban growth and agricultural mechanisation.

Below the commoners were the cottiers and landless men - bothach, fuidir in Irish - who were free men but did not have any land and hired themselves out as labourers either to lords, commoners or to monasteries. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the hereditary serfs - senchleithe in Irish - who were part of the estate of their landlord. Slavery was widely practiced in Ireland at the time. The slaves were usually supplied by traders, who acquired them from raiding trips in Britain. Alternatively, some families sold children into slavery during times of famine. In some cases, prisoners escaped their fates by being taken on as manual labour by a monastery.

In terms of agriculture, most farmers had animals. Cows were grazed on common land and beef provided the bulk of meat that was eaten. This was supplemented by some pork, and mutton for the poorer people. The cows also provided dairy produce which formed a large part of the diet in the form of milk, salted butter and cheeses. Unfenced strips of arable land were found nearer the houses. These were used for cereal crops such as oats, barley, wheat and rye. These were eaten in the form of porridge, bread or ale. The grain was ususally stored in pits or souterrains, because it was common for enemies to burn the grain of your peasantry at time of war. Wild fruit and vegetable growing provided the remainder of the diet. Survival was almost purely subsistence, and if there was a bad year for both animals and crops there was a famine. Famine was all too common in this era, probably causing the population to fluctuate continuously. New technology aided the farmers somewhat: the horizontal mill and a more efficient plough were adopted in the 400s.

Marriage was very unstable: divorce and remarriage was common. In all tiers of society, but most notably with the nobility, polygamy was practiced. Despite the best efforts of the church, this trend persisted all through the period. The effect of polygamy was that the lords had huge families, not all of which could maintain the lordship status. This resulted in a general drift of lineages down through the ranks of society.

Anglo-Saxons in Britain

Although this is a history of Ireland, events in Britain in this period are so important that they need to be covered. The Angles, Jutes and Saxons were groups of people living in what is now Denmark and northern Germany. Starting in 440AD, warriors sailed across and landed on the eastern seaboard of Celtic Britain, in ever increasing numbers. They met stiff resistance, but after two centuries of continuous battling the Anglo-Saxons (as they became known) had established control over most of southern Britain. Only Wales, Cornwall and Scotland remained in control of Celtic kings. Settlers from the Anglo-Saxon homelands arrived in large numbers. They did not push the Celts out of England; rather they assimilated them into the Anglo-Saxon culture. In time the Anglo-Saxons established their own separate kingdoms in Britain, and the situation in the year 800 is shown by the map on the right. It is the Angles who were destined to give their name to the country they had colonised: Angle-land or England, and the word Anglo- is still used to refer to anything English. The Anglo-Saxon invasion is significant for Irish history since it marks the end of the Celtic era in Britain, but its continuation in Ireland: a significant point of divergence in the story of these sister islands.

The Coming of the Vikings

Who were the Vikings? They were a group of people who originated in modern-day Denmark and Norway. In the 700s, pressure on land in Scandanavia had forced many nobles and warriors to seek land elsewhere. Some of these were younger sons, who stood to inherit nothing of their father's estate. Noblemen with little to lose began to gather together groups of warriors and go down the coast pillaging settlements. They sold their booty for money, much like the black markets of today, and this became the means of making their living. The invention of the longboat made it possible for these warriors to sail across the North Sea to attack Britain, Oseberg Ship [11kB]France and Ireland as well. In these areas they became known as the "Norsemen" (literally, north-men) and laterally as the "Vikings". They called themselves "Ostmen". The Vikings who first attacked Ireland were Norwegian while those in Britain were usually Danish. Being pagans, the Vikings did not have any respect for Christian symbols and sites.

The first raids in the British Isles was in 793, when the great monastery at Lindisfarne was sacked. In Ireland, Rathlin island monastery was burned by the Vikings in 795. Other prominent monasteries that were attacked included Holmpatrick, Inishmurray, Inishbofin and Sceilg Mhicil. Sceilg Mhicil's abbot died of thirst as a Viking prisoner. St Colum Cille's great monastery at Iona was burned in 802. For the next 30-40 years, the Vikings engaged in hit-and-run raids where they landed a small number of ships at a settlement, spent a few days pillaging and burning it before heading back to Scandanavia to sell their booty. The Vikings were after two types of booty - riches and slaves - which they carried off to sell. They soon found that the monasteries were the richest sources of both goods and this is why monasteries suffered so much. However, the Vikings also attacked a lot of grad Fhene (commoner's) dwellings.

The brutality that the Vikings displayed towards their prisoners, and their apparent disrespect for anything other than booty must have injected terror into those who experienced, and heard tales of, the Norsemen's exploits. However, the effects of these raids should not be exaggerated. In this phase, there was about one attack per year and the probability of being attacked in any given year was actually quite low. Life went on as normal in Ireland. Nor did the Irish sit back and let the Vikings pillage their coasts. While most Irish attacks on the Vikings met with defeat, a few succeeded. The Ulaid defeated a band of raiders in 811, a band was defeated in Connaght in 812 and one in Munster around the same time.

The Raids Intensify

However, the Vikings were soon to improve their methods of pillaging. Instead of landing 3 or 4 boats, raiding nearby settlements and going back to Scandanavia, they decided to scale-up. They brought between 50 and 100 boats of Viking warriors, landed, and set up a camp. From this base they then raided extensively into the surrounding countryside for a period of several months. They pillaged monasteries, churches, the fortresses of Irish Lords, and farms. In 836 the lands of the southern Ui Neill suffered such an episode. In 837, the same thing happened on the Boyne and Liffey rivers on the east coast and on the Shannon on the west. In 840 the Vikings spent a year on Lough Neagh pillaging, amongst others, the monastery of Armagh. Many of the scholars and monks of Louth monastery were captured and sold into slavery. In 841 they set up fortified camps at Annagassan (county Louth) and Dubhlinn (present day Dublin). Clonmacnoise, Birr and Clonfert were pillaged and the primate of Armagh was captured and carried off in 845.

This was the most intense period of Viking activity, and the Irish Kings seemed to be able to do little to prevent the wholesale destruction of large tracts of their Provinces. The southern Ui Neill were routed by the Vikings when they attempted to drive them out. By the end, many of the monks themselves had taken to fighting the Vikings. However, just as it looked as if Ireland was about to be conquered by the Vikings, and just as the Irish began to develop tactics with which to more effectively attack them, the raids died away. The last major Viking raid of this phase was in 851 by which time they appeared to have turned their attention to Britain.

Meanwhile, many of the Viking settlements developed and grew into towns. Their town of Dubhlinn had a thriving Norse community by the second half of the 800s, and had become the principal supplier of slaves in the British Isles. In time it became a great merchant town, until it was defeated by an Irish attack in 902. After that, the Vikings moved their power base to the Isle of Man and to the growing territory that the Vikings were carving out of Anglo-Saxon England. Other Viking towns had also been defeated, for example Cork in 848, Vadrefjord [Waterford] in 864 and Youghal in 866.