The Viking Era in Ireland
I continue to discover many interesting facts as I journey to discover my ancestry. I am answering many questions and putting many pieces of the puzzle together. The deeper I dig the more amazed I am at how much I did not know. These puzzle pieces are helping me build an idea of who I am and what ancestry and cultures I descended from. The next puzzle piece is the Viking Era in Ireland.
In one of my past blogs I did an overview of the history of Ireland. Irish is my 2nd largest ancestral background behind English. A close 3rd is my Scandinavian ancestry. It only makes sense to me that the Irish and the Scandinavian merged somewhere along the line and there is no better place to start looking at than the Viking Era in Ireland.
If you lived in Ireland before the Viking Era arrived, you lived in a land of Celtic culture and regional rulers. Ireland was not considered a centralized kingdom at the time. Ireland was made up of many smaller kingdoms engaging in conflict and alliances with each other.
Ireland had become mostly Christian, rich in gold, silver and jewelry and had established many monasteries. This period was known as the Golden Age of Ireland.
In contrast, the Vikings were a pagan society worshiping various God's. They did not have much good quality land and were in search of finding new places to expand their kingdom.
Being known as excellent shipbuilders, the boats and the sea offered the poor Vikings a way to raid and plunder other lands and to expand their kingdom. As they conquered other areas, the pagans sought to expand further across the sea. These raids would eventually bring them to Ireland.
In 795, the Vikings began their raids of the Irish coast. Their first initial desire of the Vikings was to raid the Irish monasteries and loot their riches and various artifacts.
But by the year 830, they began to build ports and settlements on the coasts which allowed them to move further inland to the Irish countryside. In 841, one of these settlements was named Dublin and was one of the most significant trading centers in Europe and later the Irish capital.
The Vikings then began to settle throughout Ireland and lived alongside different Irish clans. This would lead to intermarriage and the combining of both cultures. The Vikings would add their influence to the English language, the Irish food, literature and crafts.
Researchers believe the Viking invasions led to a DNA breakup of Ireland. They have discovered many new genetic clusters that had not been identified before, causing a belief that there is some Viking influence in Irish DNA. Wow, So I was possibly right about this connection?
The Viking Era also helped Ireland to establish contact and trade with England and Europe. This led to many European influences being brought into Ireland.
The settlements that the Vikings built would go on to become many of the Irish cities that are known today. One of the most famous cathedrals in Ireland, Christ Church Cathedral, was built by the Vikings.
I continue to grow spiritually on this journey. There is so much information out there in the universe that we are just not aware of.
When I first started looking at my ancestry many years ago, it was trying to find out who each grandparent was throughout the family tree. Now I want to dig deeper to discover who they really were, not just a name.
The deeper I research, the more closer I get to finding out who I am. The deeper I research, the closer I get to discovering the mysteries of the universe.
There are many things to learn about this world and this lifetime. Eventually, as I grow spiritually, I will discover and learn more about past lifetimes.
Today we discovered a connection between Irish and Scandinavian ancestry. We discovered how they are different but brought those differences together to make a better society.
We discovered that they intermarried and became one. Ultimately though, we are all connected and we are all one. Even though we are different in many ways, we are all still one together.
The Viking Era of Ireland is an example of how we can become one together and make our society a better place for us and our descendants.
Blessings
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the Voices of the unheard
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