The Irish were now increasingly making use of fleets
in their battles with the Norse and among themselves.
The lakes and rivers of the interior were being exploited
militarily, as well as the usual activity on the sea. In
955, the northern Uí Néill king, Domnall Ua Néill,
brought a fleet from the mouth of the Bann into Lough
Neagh, along the river Blackwater into Lough Erne,
and from there to Lough Owel to force the submission
of Fergal ua Ruairc, king of Bréifne. In 963, he brought
a fleet along the Blackwater across Slíabh Fuait (Fews,
Co. Armagh) to Lough Ennell, where the main branch
of the southern Uí Néill had their headquarters. Brian
Bóruma put 300 vessels on Lough Ree in 988, from
where he harried the midlands and Connacht. His oppo-
nent Máel-Sechnaill maintained a fleet on Lough Ree,
and in 1016 Brian’s son plundered the main churches
on the islands of the lake and captured his ships.
One type of ship is called a
serrcend
(galley). For
example, in 1035 the men of Bréifne came down the
Shannon with fourteen galleys and plundered Clonfert.
Brian’s son pursued them with the crew of one ship
and slaughtered them at the confluence of the Suck
and the Shannon.
Fleets then became an indispensable part of military
strategy and must have consumed considerable
resources in building and maintenance. From twelfth-
century texts it would seem that each
tricha cét
(cantred) was to support ten ships. The crews were
filled by a levy of men who must take wages and
accompany their lords and be provisioned by their own
families while they were on service. By the twelfth
century local kings had become the officers of the major
kings. Ó Flaithbheartaigh (O’Flaherty), for example,
was the
taísech nócoblach
(admiral) of Ó Conchobair’s
(O’Connor’s) fleet based at the mouth of the Corrib,
at Galway.
The largest ship known from the Viking world was
built in Dublin about the year 1060. This was a long
warship, perhaps of the type known as a
skei
, and was
built of Irish oak. It was c. 30 m long and had a crew
of up to 100 men, with about sixty on the oars. By the
mid-eleventh century the Dublin fleet was formidable
and was frequently for hire. It was part of an attack
on England in 1058 by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and
Magnus, son of Harald Hardrada, king of Norway.
Gruffydd invaded Gwynedd with the fleet in 1075.
Diarmait Ua Briain plundered Wales with the fleet in
- In 1137, Conchobar Ua Briain and Diarmait Mac
Murchada, with 200 ships from Dublin and Wexford,
laid siege to Waterford. Malcolm IV, king of Scotland,
hired the Dublin fleet in 1164, and in the following
year none other than King Henry II of England hired
the fleet for six months.
A major industry at Dublin must have been the
building, repairing, and provisioning of ships. From
eleventh- and twelfth-century texts we have a vocab-
ulary that is in support of this. The word
longboth
means “shipyard” or “boat-shed,” perhaps the tempo-
rary structure placed over a ship under repair;
longth-
ech
(boat-house) may represent a more permanent
structure. These words may correspond to the
hrof
, a
less-substantial structure, on the one hand and the
naust
, a proper building mentioned in Icelandic liter-
ature, on the other.
Given the nature of the evidence it is not possible
to determine how battles were organized or what strat-
egies were used by opposing fleets. What is clear,
however, is the scale of naval warfare and the quality
of the ships and the sailors who manned them.
C
HARLES
D
OHERTYReferences and Further Reading
Bannerman, John.
Studies in the History of Dalriada. Edinburgh:
Scottish Academic Press, 1974.
Doherty, Charles. “The Vikings in Ireland: a Review.” In
Ireland
and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age
, edited by Howard
B. Clarke, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, and Raghnall Ó Floinn.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998, pp. 288–330.
Smith, Brendan.
Britain and Ireland 900–1300: Insular
Responses to Medieval European Change
. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999.
See also
Dublin; Military Service, Gaelic; Ships
and Shipping; Viking Incursions
NIALL GLUNDUB
See
Uí Néill, NorthernNIALL NOÍGIALLACH
Niall was the eponymous ancestor of the Uí Néill
dynasty, which originated in north-eastern Connacht
and was dominant in Ireland until the end of the tenth
century. His real name was probably
Nél
(cloud); the
change to Niall may be due to the influence of his
epithet
Noígiallach
(of the nine hostages), referring to
nine tributary peoples owing allegiance to him.
According to some of the later annals, Niall died in
the early fifth century; his actual floruit may have been
in the fourth century. There is no firm evidence about
Niall’s life, as he predates the period of written history.
However, he features prominently in myth and legend.
Niall is said to have been the son of Eochaid
Mugmedón and Cairenn, who may have been of British
origin. The
Echtra mac n-Echach
Muigmedóin
(which
is intended to establish the relative political prestige
of the Uí Néill and their Connacht cousins), recounts
that Eochaid and his other wife, Mongfind, had four
sons—Brian, Fiacha, Ailill, and Fergus—three ofNIALL NOÍGIALLACH