Westropp — Ancient Churches in Co. Limerielc. 339 



thein (the Irish) in those years which is not recorded at all."^ In 

 866 eastern Limerick and the Deisi were ravaged, and Emly hurned ; 

 then the "fair'' and ''dark foreigners" (quarrelled, and ''the land 

 had rest forty years." 



In 916 wars again commenced; Hacon, Tamar, and Otter raided 

 the Ui Chonaill and Uaithne ; the duns were attacked, the churches 

 ravaged, and the shrines and hooks " broken and torn." The Danes 

 were checked in 943 by Ceallachan, King of Cashel, and Kennedy, 

 King of the Dalcassians, of Thomond, in the fierce battle of Singland 

 (Saingeal), at Limerick. A generation later, Kennedy's sons, Mahon 

 and Brian, weakened the foreigners in the battle of Solloghod (Sulchoit), 

 964, and took Limerick. The punishment of the Danes' allies, the 

 Ui Enna and Ui Fidgeinte, who hated the Dalcassians, and " the red 

 slaughter of the foreigners" at Shanagolden, took place in 968.- 

 Though the victory of Clontarf was little better than a drawn battle, 

 and left the Dalcassians sorely crippled, the Danish towns, after 1014, 

 never became centres of tyranny, and the logic of fortune turned the 

 Danes in the cities towards the Christian faith.^ The next Teutonic 

 invaders found an Irish king and a Danish bishop ruling the old 

 iN'orse town; and round its walls, in the "Cantred of the Ostmen," a 

 Danish population of some importance. Long after the O'Eriens had 

 fallen back behind the Shannon, long after even the close of the 

 thirteenth century, Norse names — Harold, Sweyn, Siward,* Hereward, 

 Sitric, Thursteyn, Thordelb,^ and others — some even subsisting to our 

 time, remind us that the northern blood still flowed in the veins of the 

 citizens of Limerick. 



^ Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 15. 



- For all this section, besides the various Annals, see the " Wars of the Gaedhil 

 with the Gaill" (ed. Todd), pp. 5, 9, 15, 19, 25, 39, 49, 61, 77. 



2 The "Norse" rulers of Limerick were Omphile; Barith (Chron. Scot.); 

 Ivar, 853 ; Sitric, slain 895 ; Colla, son of Barith, 908 ; Tomar mac Elgi, "King 

 of Denmark and East Anglia," ruled Limerick for eight years, 931 ; Colla, grand- 

 son of Ivar (leader), and Amlav, 940 ; Ivar, grandson of Ivar, 939 ; Harold, 

 grandson of Ivar, 940; Ivar, 942; Olfin, then Harold, 968; Magnus, or Maris 

 (governor), fell at Sulchoit. In 1104 Murcbeartach O'Brien, King of Ireland, built 

 a palace in Limerick, 1171 ; Cormac MacCartby burned the market-place, and half 

 the fort of Limerick. Much may be learned from '* the Norsemen of Limerick," 

 by Rev. T. Lee, R.S.A.L, 1889, xix., p. 227, Worsaae, &c. 



* Syward was prepositus of Limerick in 1201 (]M. f. H.). We find two mayors, 

 Siward Minutor and Si ward de Feredona, in 1214-1215. 



^ As in '"Mikells Tworedell, " in Mungret (D.S.A.), and the " Bog of Twore- 

 dell" [lb., 11). 



