Page 118 - Demo

118 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
meaning dock or harbor.This process of fortification which signified a fortress or encamp- ment consisted of an earthen, stockaded embankment built around the harbours where they beached their galleys. In 841 they established a major Long-Phort at Ath na gCasán-the ford of the paths, modern day, Annagassan, in county Louth, and another at Dubh-Linn, Dublin, at the mouth of the river Liffey. Dublin was to become the most important of all the Norse strongholds, and while others were established at the important ports of Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick, Dublin remained the seat of Norse power for nearly two hundred years.
Its no surprise to discover that Ireland, its culture and its Christian religion, were almost fatally staggered by Turgesius and his followers, and this daring and brutal warrior, some say tyrant, terrorised the country for almost thirteen years, that is until 845 when he was outwitted by King Malachi the First of Meath, the then High-King. The general version of what occurred is that the death of Turgesius was brought about by trickery. A cunning plan “resembling” as the Irish bard and historian John Moore aptly observed, “in some of its particulars a stratagem recorded by Plutarch in his Life of Pelopidas.”
The story runs that Turgesius had lustful designs on the daughter of the King of Meath whom he demanded as his wife. An arrangement was made that the two should meet at an appointed place, and that the lady should be accompanied by fifteen maidens and he by fifteen of his men. The maidens turned out to be beardless hand-picked young warriors all armed with concealed daggers. Turgesius, suspecting nothing, arrived at the spot, and im- mediately the youths fell upon him and his guard and secured them as prisoners. Turgesius was then brought to Lough Owel where he had his headquarters and once there he was weighed and loaded with chains and fetters. According to the local lore, in a method of execution that showed great disdain for Turgesius, he was then placed in a barrel and rolled down a hill into the lake and drowned in its waters-thus ending his bloodstained career. There is no conclusive available account of what happened to Turgesius’s wizard-like com- panion, Yahya ibn-Hakam el bekri al Djayani, but the local lore would have us believe that he escaped into the wider countryside where he lived out his days educating the Irish in his esoteric mystical ways!
The overthrow of Turgesius was followed by a series of Norse reverses, and it could be said that King Malachy broke their hold upon Ireland, albeit for a time, as the invaders were driven back to the protection of their coastal strongholds. It is historically recorded that
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