Read 1014: Brian Boru & the Battle for Ireland for Free Online

tribe to which Brian’s new wife was related. His marriage to Achra had linked Brian with the most powerful tribe in Ireland. Such connections were of paramount importance in determining rank and prestige, which is why the bards had spent decades memorising genealogies long before the arrival of literacy.
    Malachy was well equipped to be a king. In addition to considerable physical strength and a good character, he was an exceptional horsemen. He took pride in being able to manage a stallion that had never been ridden or handled in any way until it was seven years old. It was said that the first time he mounted such an animal hecould ride it as any other man would ride an old tame mare.
    Almost from the day of his inauguration at Tara, Malachy was at war. Under the rule of Olaf Cuaran, known as ‘Olaf of the Sandals’, the king of Dublin, the city had acquired a black name for the number and ill-treatment of its Irish captives. To make matters worse, Olaf Cuaran had formed an alliance with Donall, king of the neighbouring province of Leinster. Together they were ravaging the royal territory of Meath. Malachy Mór gathered his new army and set out to teach them a lesson they would never forget.
    Olaf Cuaran had ruled Dublin for more than a generation . During that time he had converted to Christianity and encouraged his followers to join him. Most of the Dublin Danes had become at least nominal Christians, though for some their pagan tendencies died hard. By 980 Olaf Cuaran was worn and tired. He had outlived two wives, participated in a number of battles, and in his later years had married again. She was Gormlaith, princess of Leinster. The aging king had been proud when his very young and very beautiful new wife bore him a son, whom they called Sitric. But those may have been his last days of happiness.
    Marriage to Gormlaith was like trying to sail a smallboat in a tempest. She could not resist causing trouble. If there was no conspiracy afoot to keep her entertained, she concocted one. While she was in the royal palace in Dublin there was never any peace for an old man. When Olaf Cuaran and his Leinster allies were soundly whipped in battle by Malachy, the newly crowned Árd Rí, Olaf surrendered to the inevitable. He may have been reluctant to give up his kingship but he was not unhappy to turn his back on his marriage. He abandoned both Dublin and Gormlaith and fled to a monastery. The one he chose had been founded by St Columba in 563, on the island of Iona; it is believed that the famous illuminated Book of Kells, now in Trinity College, Dublin, was begun on Iona but later removed to Kells in Ireland.
    Iona was part of a sixth-century Irish settlement which once had included Argyll on the Scottish mainland and the islands of the Hebrides. The settlers were members of the Dal Riada tribe in northern Ireland. Their descendants were the highland Scots, who for centuries would resist English domination with indomitable courage. The monastery St Columba founded on Iona had been a frequent target of the Vikings. Perhaps Olaf Cuaran went there as an act of contrition, but if so, he did not have much time to gain forgiveness. Not long after his arrival on Iona, the old king died.
    Upon payment of an exorbitantly high tribute, Malachy Mór allowed Sitric, who was so young they still called him ‘Silkbeard’, to succeed his father as king of Dublin. He was not the first king of Dublin to bear that name; at least three had preceded him over the years: ‘Sigtryggr’ was a popular Viking name. The arrangement was somewhat reminiscent of Brian Boru’s generous treatment of the Norse in Limerick, but it did not win the eternal loyalty of the Danes of Dublin for Malachy. Their allegiance was given to their new king and through him to his uncle, Maelmora of Leinster, Gormlaith’s brother.
    Sitric, and thus Maelmora, were now connected to one of the most prosperous trading confederations in the world. The collapse of the Roman