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24 THE VIKING PERIOD
leading into the streets and the houses. 1
As a kingdom it
was independent, having subject colonies at Cashel, Thurles,
Lough Ree and Lough Comb. 2
It bad no connection with
Dublin during the tenth century ;
in fact, there is evidence
to show that both royal houses were bitterly hostile towards
each another. On one occasion Guthfiith, King of Dublin,
led an army to Limerick, but was repulsed with heavy losses
by the Vikings there. 3
A few years later (A.D. 929) he
expelled Tomar’s successor, King Ivarr of Limerick, and his
followers from Magh Roighne (a plain in Ossory), where
they had encamped for a whole year. Olaf Godfreyson
was equally active. After defeating Olaf Cenncairech and
the Limerick Vikings at Lough Ree in 937, he carried them
off to Dublin,* and that same year probably forced them
to fight on his side in the battle of Brunnanburh.
This hostility would seem to have been due to rivalry
between two powerful kingdoms, rather than, as has been
suggested,
6
to difference of nationality. It is not at all
certain that the Limerick Vikings were purely Danes.
One Irish chronicler speaks of the Scandinavians in Munster
as Gaill and Danair and calls their fleets loingeas
Danmarcach ocus allmurach (" fleets of Danes and
foreigners ").
6
Elsewhere 7
we find the word Lochlannaigh
(i.e., Norsemen) used with reference to the Limerick settlers ;
Victorious Career of Cellachan of Cashel, pp. 9, 66; War o)
the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 56.
1
Annals of Ulster, A.D. 845, 922, 929; The Victorious Career of
Cellachan of Cashel, p. 10 ; War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 10 ;
Three Fragments of Annals, p. 197.
* Annals of Ulster, A.D. 924.
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