Irish Vikings: The Dark Foreigners of Dublin

The Mercian burhs: Chester

Part II

The Coming of the Dark Foreigners 
The Annals of Ulster record the first Viking raids on Ireland in the year 795, just two years after the well known attack on Lindisfarne on the north-east coast of England, with the burning of “Rechru by the gentiles”. Rechru has been identified as Rathlin Island off the north coast of County Antrim. Further raids in 795 are reported on the west coast of Ireland at Inishmurray and Inishbofin, followed by the burning of St Patrick's Isle (Holmpatrick) and the destruction of the shrine of Do-Chonna in 798.

These early raids on Ireland were likely connected to Viking raids on the west coast of Scotland  and probably associated with the same group who attacked Lindisfarne, and the earliest recorded attack on England in 789 on Portland in which the king's reeve was killed.

In the 820's raids increased on Ireland's coast by Scandinavian groups termed by the annalists as either 'gaill' (foreigners) or 'gennti' (gentiles). During the 830's attacks recorded throughout eastern and central Ireland became more furious; monasteries at Armagh, Glendalough and Kildare were repeatedly attacked on more than one occasion in the same year.  By now there was greater emphasis on inland rather than coastal raiding with the Vikings becoming involved with internal conflicts within Ireland, often employed as mercenaries or allies.

The Dublin longphort

Large raiding parties such as the sixty longships recorded on the Liffey and Boyne in 837 could only have been sustained by overwintering groups on semi-permanent camps probably on off-shore islands. The earliest recorded Viking land base in Ireland was at Inber Dea in County Wicklow from which the raid on Kildare in 836 was launched. By the 840's the Vikings were establishing permanent camps at strategic locations on rivers and loughs. In 841 Dublin is described as a “longphort” (Old Irish: ship-fortress); with other settlements at Lough Neagh (841), Lough Swilly (842), Rosnaree (842), Limerick (845), Cork (848), and Waterford (860).

The location of the longphort at Dublin has remained a matter of debate among scholars, yet the Annals of Ulster record the site as Dubh-linn, i.e. the 'black pool'. Griffiths states this is possibly the former dark pool in the river Poddle, at its confluence with the Liffey, which would have formed a natural harbour. Excavations have revealed evidence of pre-917 (the date the Viking's re-founded Dublin) Scandinavian houses and animal pens at the confluence of the Poddle and Liffey.  However, no 9th century defences have been found for the longphort. Griffiths suggests the site of Dublin Castle, built by King John of England, overlooking the black pool, where excavations have uncovered evidence of later Viking defences, seems the most obvious location.

Dynastic struggles were prevalent among the Viking settlers as well as the native Irish groups during the 840's. After a series of defeats at the hands of the Irish, the Dubhlinn longphort was attacked in 849 by Máel Sechnaill, high king of Ireland aided by the chieftain Tigernach mac Fócartai. In 851 the annalists record the first appearance of the “Dubgaill” or “Dubgenti” (Dark Foreigners, or Dark Gentiles) in the following entry:

“The dark gentiles (Dubh gennti) came to Áth Cliath (Dublin), made great slaughter of the fair foreigners (Finn gaill), and plundered the longphort; the dark heathens then made a raid on Linn Duachaill where many were slaughtered”.

The descriptions of the heathens or foreigners as 'dark' and 'fair' (often interpreted as 'black' or 'white') is used in both Ireland and Britain during the Viking age has nothing to do with black men apparently taken from North Africa by the Vikings; although undeniably during the Viking age Dublin was a major economy in the trade of “thralls” or slaves. As we saw in the burh at Shrewsbury the Welsh Annals record engagements with “black gentiles” in Anglesey and Gwynedd and the presence of “pagans” in the land of the Wreocensæte during the mid-9th century. There can be little doubt that these Viking groups raiding into Wales and the Marches were from Scandinavian settlements in Ireland.

For many years these terms were used to describe different ethnic groups among the Scandinavian settlers, distinguishing Dane from Norwegian; the historian Alfred Smyth argued for the dark Danes of York and the fair Norsemen of the Western Isles. David Dumville has since argued for the term ‘dark foreigners’ used to describe a new batch of Vikings arriving in Ireland in the 850's; the terms used by the annalists to distinguish between 'old' and 'new'. Clare Downham takes this a step further and suggests that the 'dark foreigners' were the dynasty of Ivar who attacked the Dublin longphort in 851.

A fleet of 140 longships sailed up the Liffey and into Dubhlinn, said to have been sent by the King of Laithlinn “to exact obedience from the foreigners who were in Ireland before them”.

These dark foreigners from Laithlinn (Norway?) imposed their rule on the fair foreigners of the Dublin longphort and gained submission from the Irish in 853. They were led by the son of the kings of Laithlinn known as Olafr (Old Irish; Amlaib) and his brothers Ivarr (OI; Imair) who would go on to create a great dynasty in York and Dublin, and Auisle (OI; Ásl).

Olafr would soon come into conflict with Máel Sechnaill throughout the late 850's and early 860's. During this period the annalists introduced a name for another group, the 'Gallgoidil', fighting alongside Máel Sechnaill against the forces of Olafr and Ivarr. Historians have debated the enigmatic Gallgoidil (foreigner gaels) for many years; it appears to have been a term used by the annalists to distinguish a mixed-race group, from either the dark gentiles or the fair foreigners. They were possibly descendants of the first Norse settlers in Ireland in the 840's who had taken Irish wives.

Raids in to Wales
Having taken over the longphort it wasn't long before the Dark Gentiles of Dubhlinn started venturing eastward across the Irish Sea, taking their unique brand of violence with them; Anglesey was a short day's sail away, and the river Ribble was the most direct route to York. And the old walled Roman city of Chester sat invitingly at the mouth of the river Dee.

Shortly after the arrival of the sons of the king of Laithlinn in Dubhlinn, Dark Gentiles are recorded in north Wales. The Welsh Annals record that Cynin (of Powys) died fighting “the gentiles” (Vikings) in 850. In 854  “Y Llu Du” (the Black Host) attacked Môn (Anglesey). The following year, 855,  “Black Gentiles” attacked Gwynedd, their leader Gorm was slain by Rhodri Mawr, ruler of Gwynedd (844-78). Gorm [Orm] is recorded fighting in Ireland in the 850’s.

The Dynasty of Ivarr (Uí (h)Ímair; literally the grandsons of Ivarr) was a royal Norse dynasty which went on to rule much of the Irish Sea region from the mid 9th century; the Kingdom of Dubhlinn, the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, and parts of north-west England.

The expulsion from Dublin c.902 

However, the rule of the Dark Gentiles in Dubhlinn came to a devastating end in 902 when they were attacked by the Irish kings Cerball mac Muirecáin King of Leinster and Máel Findia mac Flannacáin King of Brega from the north and the south, driving the Vikings out of the  longphort, leaving “great numbers of their ships behind them, and escaped half-dead across the sea."

Having been expelled from Dublin in 902, the descendants of Ivarr moved their base to the Isle of Man and soon started making inroads into north-west England. Yet, in 914 the Vikings would return to Ireland, marking the beginning of the Second Viking Age.

That year a force Viking longships sailed into the estuary of the River Severn pillaging south Wales. Repelled by the men of Hereford and Gloucester  the Viking fleet made no further progress upstream and turned back. In the Autumn the Vikings sailed to Waterford harbour in Ireland. They promptly re-captured their settlement of Vadrefjord [Waterford] from which the Irish had expelled the first Vikings half a century earlier. By 917 the Vikings had re-captured the longphort at Dubhlinn.


>> Continued in Part III: Ingimund's Invasion


Sources:
Clare Downham, Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, Dunedin, 2007.
David Griffiths, Vikings of the Irish Sea, History Press, 2010.
Alfred Smyth, The Black Foreigners of York and White Foreigners of Dublin, Saga Book of the Viking Society 19, 1977.
David Dumville, Old Dubliners and New Dubliners in Ireland and Britain, Medieval Dublin VI, 2005.

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