Category: Ballinderry

• Shannon Bases and Viking Raids in Offaly. By John Dolan. Blog No 761, 21 Nov. 2025

  There are a number of references in the Annals to Viking bases been set up on the Shannon, particularly in the larger lakes of Lough Derg and Lough Ree. There were two distinct periods of Viking activity on Lough Ree starting In the ninth century when the Vikings had a fleet on the lough. The Annals of Ulster for 845AD say ‘There was an encampment of the foreigners i.e. under Tuirgéis on Loch Rí, and they plundered Connacht and Mide, and burned Cluain Moccu Nóis (Clonmacnoise) with its oratories, and Cluain Ferta Brénainn (Clonfert), and Tír dá Glas (Terryglass) and Lothra (Lorrha) and other monasteries’.   Later another base was built between Dromineer and Castlelough in the lands of the O’Sextons.  It was from the Shannon that the majority of raids into County Offaly were carried out.  A very early and unusual entry in the Annals of Ulster for 749 says ‘ships with their crews were seen in the air above Cluain Moccu Nóis’.

  The following year Tuirgéis was captured by Maelsechlainn and drowned by him in Lough Owel outside Mullingar. The Annals of Ulster for 922AD say ‘The fleet of Limerick, that is of Ailche’s son went on Loch Rí, plundered Clonmacnoise and all the islands on Loch Rí and took great booty in gold, silver and much treasure’.  In 924AD the entry reads ‘Kolli son of Bárðr ‘Lord of Luimnech’ raids Lough Ree’.

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  November 21, 2025

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• Vikings on the Shannon. By John Dolan. Blog No 760, 14 Nov. 2025

  There is little doubt that contact by sailors from Norway had occurred over many years in the 8^th and 9^th centuries between the islands of northern Scotland, the east coast of England and with Ireland.  Most of these sailors would have been fishermen or traders and would have acquired details of the Irish coastline, location of rivers and awareness of monastic sites.  This intelligence was readily available when the Viking raiders came calling.

  Tony Lucas in his paper on the plundering of Irish churches makes the point that of the 309 ecclesiastical sites that were plundered between 600 and 1163AD, the Irish themselves were responsible for 139 of these. Only 140 of these can be directly attributed to the Vikings and 19 raids are attributed to the Irish and Norse together. An entry in the Annals of Ulster for 755 records ‘The burning of Cluain Moccu Nóis on the twelfth of the Kalends of April’ by the Irish long before the arrival of any Viking.

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  November 14, 2025

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• The Vikings in Offaly. By John Dolan. Blog No 233, 17th Oct 2020

  Our traditional view of the Vikings in Ireland was established by our early primary and secondary schooling. We were aware that the Vikings commenced raiding in 795 AD by their raid on Rathlin Island. Eventually they settled in a few areas around our coastline. However, most of the country was within reach of Viking raiding parties. One of the primary bases from which Viking raids emerged was from the city of Limerick. Limerick provided a springboard for raids up the Shannon, affecting areas on either side of the river.

  These raids were on church monasteries resulted in the slaughter of monks and workers in the monasteries. It also appears that the Vikings knew exactly where these monasteries were located and regularly their arrival coincided when particular religious events were underway.  From other evidence they were after people, cattle and very occasionally the gold and silver in the monasteries.  People were regularly taken to be sold at slaves. The largest such raid was carried out at Howth in the year 821 AD where over 600 females were taken away by ship for slavery. In later times Dublin became the largest Viking slave centre in Western Europe; Kiev in Ukraine was their largest slave centre in the East.

  

  Les pirates normands au IXe siècle by Évariste-Vital Luminais (1894), Musée Anne de Beaujeu, Moulin

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  October 17, 2020

  Harvard Irish Mission, monasteries, Vikings

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