Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf

Author: Sean Duffy
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN: 0717157768
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
Brian Boru is the most famous Irish person before the modern era, whose death at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 is one of the few events in the whole of Ireland's medieval history to retain a place in the popular imagination. Once, we were told that Brian, the great Christian king, gave his life in a battle on Good Friday against pagan Viking enemies whose defeat banished them from Ireland forever. More recent interpretations of the Battle of Clontarf have played down the role of the Vikings and portrayed it as merely the final act in a rebellion against Brian, the king of Munster, by his enemies in Leinster and Dublin. This book proposes a far-reaching reassessment of Brian Boru and Clontarf. By examining Brian's family history and tracing his career from its earliest days, it uncovers the origins of Brian's greatness and explains precisely how he changed Irish political life forever. Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf offers a new interpretation of the role of the Vikings in Irish affairs and explains how Brian emerged from obscurity to attain the high-kingship of Ireland because of his exploitation of the Viking presence. And it concludes that Clontarf was deemed a triumph, despite Brian's death, because of what he averted – a major new Viking offensive in Ireland – on that fateful day.

1014: Brian Boru & the Battle for Ireland

Author: Morgan Llywelyn
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486842002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
"A deftly written history that reads as smoothly as a novel." — Midwest Book Review In life, the eleventh-century Irish king Brian Boru held the Vikings at bay; in death, he remains a towering presence in history and legend. A thousand years have passed since the Battle of Clontarf, a turning point in Irish history in which two centuries of strife between Irish kings and Vikings climaxed in a fateful conflict in the swamps of Dublin. This fascinating survey explores the personalities on both sides and provides a vivid, accessible account of the historic clash. Morgan Llywelyn, author of the bestselling Lion of Ireland, ranks among the world's most successful and respected historical novelists writing about Ireland and Celtic culture. With this book she departs from fiction to transmit decades of research into a page-turning exploration of a warrior king's life, loves, and battles, bringing the facts to life with a novelist's eye for detail and drama. "Llywelyn's account is one of the most readable and dramatic on the subject. She brings the complexities of the Irish chieftain and inheritance systems to life and shows us how decisive the famous battle turned out to be." — Irish Voice

Lion of Ireland

Author: Morgan Llywelyn
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429913207
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Book Description
King, warrior, and lover Brian Boru was stronger, braver, and wiser than all other men-the greatest king Ireland has ever known. Out of the mists of the country's most violent age, he merged to lead his people to the peak of their golden era. His women were as remarkable as his adventures: Fiona, the druidess with mystical powers; Deirdre, beautiful victim of a Norse invader's brutal lust; Gormlaith, six-foot, read-haired goddess of sensuality. Set against the barbaric splendors of the tenth century, Lion of Ireland is a story rich in truth and legend-in which friends become deadly enemies, bedrooms turn into battlefields, and dreams of glory are finally fulfilled. Morgan Llywelyn has written one of the greatest novels of Irish history. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Battle of Clontarf

Author: Darren McGettigan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781846823848
Category : Clontarf, Battle of, Clontarf, Ireland, 1014
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The story of the Battle of Clontarf, fought almost a thousand years ago on April 23, 1014, is an inspiring one. It is a tale of ambition, determination, courage, and sacrifice. Although the history of the battle has often been misrepresented, it is without doubt one of the most important events to have taken place in medieval Ireland. The battle was not just influential in Irish history, it also had a major impact on the subsequent history of the jarldom of Orkney - a Scandinavian power that lay to the north and west of medieval Scotland. Brian Boru emerges from the pages of this illustrated book, not as the great reforming high-king of legend, but as a still highly ambitious and intelligent monarch, whose steely resolve led his army to victory on the Clontarf battlefield during that Good Friday in 1014. *** "McGettigan's book expertly delivers the downtempo pace of travel and communication across that ancient world - concepts alien to our expectations of instant everything. Yet after 1,000 years, the Battle of Clontarf still resonates with people, thanks to volumes like this one that delineate the eternal importance of alliances and resources - prime factors that figure in every war, everywhere."Ã?Â?Ã?Â? The Celtic Connection, November 2013

Brian Boru

Author: Morgan Llywelyn
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
ISBN: 1847174698
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Book Description
Illustrated by Donald Teskey This internationally best-selling author, winner of many awards in adult historical fiction, now turns her hand to historical fiction for children with a personalised account of the life of Brian Boru, from his childhood in the midst of a large warrior family to his final role as High King of Ireland. 'A life full of battles, intrigues, alliances and betrayals, which make a stirring tale told in realistic detail'. The Irish Times

Brian Boru

Author: Roger Chatterton Newman
Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd
ISBN: 1856357198
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
The story of the king who came closer than any other Irishman before or after to uniting Ireland.

Brian Boru

Author: Máire Ní Mhaonaigh
Publisher: Tempus Pub Limited
ISBN: 9780752429212
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Book Description
Brian Boru King of Munster, was among the most successful of all medieval Irish monarchs. This is a biography of the most famous of Ireland's High Kings.

Brian Boru

Author: Damien Goodfellow
Publisher: O'Brien Press
ISBN: 9781847172846
Category : Graphic novels
Languages : en
Pages : 96

Book Description
The rise of a local chieftain to become High King of Ireland, fighting native and Danish invader alike in a whirlwind of constant conflict. Brian's wife, Gormfhlaith, a woman caught between the ever shifting forces of destruction, battles to save her family. A stirring graphic novel telling the life of Ireland's most famous chieftain.

Battle of the Four Courts

Author: Michael Fewer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1788546636
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Book Description
A meticulous, compellingly readable reconstruction of those three summer days that ignited the civil war – the defining event of modern Irish politics. The Irish Civil War began at around four o'clock in the morning on June 28, 1922. An 18-pounder artillery piece began to fire on the thick granite walls of the Four Courts – a beautiful eighteenth-century complex of buildings that housed Ireland's highest legal tribunals. Inside the courts a large party of IRA men were barricaded – a clear sign that the treaty ending the war of independence would never be accepted by passionate republicans. After three days of fighting, with the buildings in ruins, the garrison surrendered. But the Four Courts also housed Ireland's historical archives, and these irreplaceable documents were destroyed, with burnt paper raining down over the city. This was a cultural disaster for the new state and its historical memory. Michael Fewer has a sure command of the political and military history of those years, and a mastery of the architectural and technological aspects of the battle. His recreation of this tragic episode is an intimate, detailed and essential addition to the literature of the Irish Revolution.

Structured Chaos

Author: Victor Saunders
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
ISBN: 1912560682
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
'Mountains have given structure to my adult life. I suppose they have also given me purpose, though I still can't guess what that purpose might be. And although I have glimpsed the view from the mountaintop and I still have some memory of what direction life is meant to be going in, I usually lose sight of the wood for the trees. In other words, I, like most of us, have lived a life of structured chaos.' Structured Chaos is Victor Saunders' follow-up to Elusive Summits (winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize in 1990), No Place to Fall and Himalaya: The Tribulations of Vic & Mick. He reflects on his early childhood in Malaya and his first experiences of climbing as a student, and describes his progression from scaling canal-side walls in Camden to expeditions in the Himalaya and Karakoram. Following climbs on K2 and Nanga Parbat, he leaves his career as an architect and moves to Chamonix to become a mountain guide. He later makes the first ascent of Chamshen in the Saser Kangri massif, and reunites with old friend Mick Fowler to climb the north face of Sersank. This is not just a tale of mountaineering triumphs, but also an account of rescues, tragedies and failures. Telling his story with humour and warmth, Saunders spans the decades from youthful awkwardness to concerns about age-related forgetfulness, ranging from 'Where did I put my keys?' to 'Is this the right mountain?' Structured Chaos is a testament to the value of friendship and the things that really matter in life: being in the right place at the right time with the right people, and making the most of the view.