Raids and Pilgrims
The surviving Irish annals make 1031 a year of hard edges: pilgrim kings returning from...
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Law, Fire and Rivalry
The record of Irish affairs in 1040 is unusually revealing, although still fragmentary. Several annalistic...
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Tairdelbach’s Shannon Bridges
Ireland’s political landscape was unusually fluid. Diarmait mac Máel na mBó, the ageing king of...
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Wind and Exile
In 1191, Ireland’s surviving records preserve no single island-wide battle, royal settlement or great ecclesiastical...
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The Last Hosting
Ireland in 1039 had no single ruler whose authority was accepted throughout the island. The...
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Castlepook’s Open Tundra
“31,852 BCE” is a modern numerical label, not a year that can be isolated in...
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Bridges and Broken Peace
The year is unusually well illuminated by Irish annals, though their accounts do not always...
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Conflict at Sacred Centres
The surviving Irish annals present 1038 as a year of sharp local conflict rather than...
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A Year of Strain
In 1081 Ireland was not a single state governed from one capital. It was a...
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A Shattered Kingship
The Ireland visible in the annals for 1024 was not a quiet island recovering neatly...
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