54 Proceedings of the Royal Erish Academy. 
race. They came to our shores under the guidance of recognised 
leaders, who were men of admitted rank and ability, and often claimed 
royal descent, and were acknowledged as their kings and chieftains. 
These colonists settled down and established themselves as the per- 
manent owners of extensive districts of country. Thus they possessed 
the land extending for ten or fifteen miles to the north of Dublin, 
termed Fingal, and that to the south by Donnybrook to Dalkey; 
their fortified town on the Liffey, Ostmanstown, being their principal 
centre. Clondalkin and Swords were also fortified by them. To these 
Scandinavian princes, when they had consolidated their rule, we are 
indebted for the first coinages of silver money, and they were encou- 
ragers of trade and commerce. No doubt these warriors plundered 
churches and abbeys; and when they first invaded the land, they de- 
vastated it, took all they could, and drove away or enslaved the in- 
habitants. In time they settled down, acquired property, built our 
cathedrals, erected permanent dwellings and fortifications, and con- 
tinued to reside here until the Norman barons in their turn arrived, 
when they joined with them as allies and fellow-warriors. Of dif- 
ferent race came the Danar, the black or dark-haired foreigner, who 
fought against and plundered the fair Norseman as fiercely as he 
warred with and robbed the native Irishry ; but, as Dr. Todd remarks, 
it is to be regretted that the writers of our annals ‘do not always 
clearly distinguish between them in the descriptions of their devasta- 
tions in Ireland. We cannot even be sure that the name Dane is not 
sometimes given to the Norwegian. The word Dane in later times 
was used to signify pirate robber—a cruel and ferocious barbarian 
without distinction of nation.”’ 
The earliest of these piratical northern invasions is recorded to have 
taken place in the year a.p. 794, when Rechree was burned by the 
Gentiles and its shrines broken. This place is supposed to have been 
Raghery Island, but Rev. Dr. Reeves locates it nearer to Dublin, for 
he refers it to Rechree of Bregia, that is Lambay. That this descent 
was the work of piratical Danes, or Black pagans, is confirmed by 
Welsh records as well as by Irish chronicles. 
After this period fresh bands of invaders continued to pour in, and 
about A.D. 823 several localities around Dublin and its neighbourhood 
were plundered, such as Swords, Duleek, Slane, Killossy near Naas, 
and Glendalough. Notices of these invasions are contained in the 
‘« Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill.”’ 
Flying from an incursion of bands of pirates such as these, we can 
understand how the startled inhabitants of the district, young and old, 
rushed from their dwellings along the sea coast, and endeavoured to 
cross the Dodder at Donnybrook, and so get upon the main road that 
led to Ath Chath, their last hope of safety; or surprised and made 
captive, they may have been driven there to suffer torture and death ; 
for with the river between them and Dublin, and their captors in pos- 
session of the ford, the prisoners were altogether helpless, and at the 
disposal of their assailants. At all events there remains no doubt 
