In a similar manner the social values articulated in
political poetry, even when applied to individual peo-
ple, expressed not so much the personal features of the
individuals in question but their living up to values and
expectations held generally.
M
ICHAEL
R
ICHTERNAVAL WARFARE
The importance of ships and shipping to the early Irish
finds eloquent expression in the hoard of gold objects
that were deposited at Broighter, approximately 4k
north of Limavady, County Derry. Along with gold
collars, chains, torcs, and a model cauldron was a
model boat of beaten sheet gold. It had benches, oars,
rowlocks, steering oar, and a mast. It would appear to
have been a nine-bench, wooden ocean-going ship.
The deposit lay on the ancient shoreline midway along
Lough Foyle. It is very likely that this was a votive
offering to the sea god Manannán Mac Lir. It has been
dated to the first
century
BC
. With the Romanization of
Britain, Ireland now had a wealthy neighbor. It is clear
that through trade and maritime raiding, many goods,
including slaves, were brought into Ireland. Ammianus
Marcellinus records further raids in the 360s by the
Scotti
(Irish) and
Picti
(Picts), among others, after a
treaty had been broken. It is clear that such raids were
intense throughout the fourth and fifth centuries. Irish
settlement began in Wales and Cornwall, and soon
afterward in the southwest of Scotland and the Isle of
Man. During this period the Irish dominated the Irish
Sea. It was a dominance that was to continue until the
coming of the Vikings. Marauding Britons challenged
their control of the Isle of Man during this period.
While the currach was used from ancient times to
the present, and is specifically referred to by Roman
sources as the vessel of the Picts and Scots, it is likely
that shipbuilding techniques were enhanced during the
Roman period. The word
long
(ship, boat, vessel) was
borrowed from the Latin (
navis
)
longa
. It was also
referred to as a
long fata
(long-ship, galley) in the law
tracts. A
long chennaig
was a merchant ship. Also
borrowed from Latin were
barca
,
bárc
(ship) and
libern
, from
liberna
(merchant ship). In the late sixth
century Irish kings went on naval expeditions as far as
the Orkneys. As may be seen in Adamnán’s “life” of
Saint Colum Cille, Iona was a hub of seagoing activity.
He tells of a pilot on Rathlin Island, County Antrim,
who guided ships through the dangerous tides and
currents. The abbot of Applecross drowned in 737,
cum
suis nautis
, “with his sailors,” twenty-two in number.
The crew were likely to have been monks. Adamnán
also refers to sailors, and it would seem that some of
the monks of these communities were specialist sea-
farers. The document known as the
Senchus Fer nAlban
(History of the Men of Scotland) originates in a seventh-
century Latin text. It provides a remarkable picture of
the organization in Scottish Dál Riata for manning
the fleet. Houses were grouped into twenties for the
purpose of naval recruitment. Two seven-benchers
were required from every twenty houses. It is clear
from this work and that of Adamnán that navies were
highly organized with bodies of professional sailors.
Propulsion was by rowing, but there was also a single
sail. Each oar would have had two men, so a warship
would have had at least twenty-eight men on board.
The importance of this fleet may be seen in the agree-
ment reached at the Convention of Druim Cett (Co.
Derry) in 575. The Irish portion of the kingdom of Dál
Riata was to serve the high king with land forces. The
Scottish portion was to be independent, except that it
must serve the high king with its fleet when required.
In 734, the last Cenél Conaill high king, Flaithbertach
mac Loingsig, was defeated in a sea battle off the
mouth of the river Bann, despite having the help of
the Dál Riata fleet.
The arrival of the Vikings brought about profound
changes in Irish society, or rather, accelerated the rate
of change. As in the Roman period, words were bor-
rowed, now from Old Norse. The main part of this
vocabulary was in the area of ships, shipping, and
fishing. The common Irish word for boat,
bát
(modern
Irish
bád
), is a borrowing from ON
bátr. The word for
a wine ship,
fínbárc
(
vinum
- barca
), now became
fíncharb
, where the ON
Karfi
has replaced
bárc
.
Ancaire
, from Latin
ancora
, now has a companion in
accaire
, from ON
akkeri
(anchor).
Stiúir
, from ON
styri
(rudder, helm), and
stiúrusmann
(helmsman), are
again from Old Norse. This is merely a sample of a
large vocabulary and emphasizes the technical superi-
ority of Norse shipping. The shallow-draft, clinker-
built ships of the Norse were revolutionary and allowed
for new strategies in warfare. The Vikings beached
their ships and threw up a protective bank around them
for protection. In the ninth century the compound
long-
phort
appeared to describe these encampments, made
up of
long
(ship) and
portus
(harbour), from Latin
portus
. The
longphort
came to mean a military
encampment.
The first large fleets of sixty ships came to the
mouth of the Liffey in 837. There is uncertainty about
the size of the crews of these ships, but they would
seem to have consisted of forty to fifty men. Some of
the fleets were large. In 871, Amlaíb and Ímar returned
to Dublin from Scotland with 200 ships. Warfare was
now on a scale not seen before. By the tenth century
the Irish had assimilated this new technology. Much
of the wealth upon which it was based was generated
by the slave trade.
NATIONAL IDENTITY