When gaming the Irish the time plays a large part but we have too many wrong impressions of how it was when.

The first major mistake is making too much of the seats of various kings, particularly Tara. These were ceremonial sites and winter camps not settlements as we think of them today. Most of the buildings were temporary quarters and store houses and were not military headquarters. There were many trading post type settlements which went back to pre-roman times but what we would think of as towns and settlements began to some extent with monasticism in Ireland and were seats of culture and high learning which attracted nobles and scholars from most of Europe until the arrival of the Vikings. With the Vikings came the first Cities and permanent bases of power in the way we would think of it today.

We tend to think of the island as one great bog, which it was not! There is more peat bog today than there was in the middle ages. This is because of deforestation. In fact most of Ireland's peat bogs are a product of deforestation going all the way back to the Stone Age. But the largest part came past 1603. England had a deliberate policy of deforestation from about that time on. It provided fewer hiding places for rebels. Until then Ireland had vast tracts of woodlands.

Horses and Hounds were important exports from Ireland going back to Roman time and trade extended at least as far as Spain and perhaps as far as Africa. There were numerous trading ports in the west as well as the east coast which were for the most part later occupied by Danish and Norwegian Vikings.

Militarily we have only a sketchy picture left by the legends of Cuchullain and Fionn mac Cumhaill of a warrior society where each boy, in order to become a man trekked off to Connaught to kill a man. While endemic warfare was a way of life we know little of how pitched battles were actually conducted. What we do know however, is Fionn did not have the only Fianna in Ireland. The church tried and failed to suppress this aspect of Irish life for centuries. Since land was to a large extent a clan holding young noble bloods not in line to inherit joined these groups in search of plunder and fame. They must have numbered in the high 100s at any one time, given that there were some 100 to 200 factions vying for power as late as the 11th century.

The arrival of the Viking brought new tactics and weapons and more factions to fight with. The Irish seemed to take to the Axe quite readily even to the extent that it was seriously discussed as to whether it was a Viking weapon or one of Irish invention. By the time of the battle of Clontarf in 1014 it is likely that it would be hard to tell Irish and Norse combatants apart so far as fighting style and equipment go. Kerns would be the exception to this. For what ever reason Irish nobility thought that the use of the bow on men was less than honourable. This doesn't mean that it was not used however; it just means that the minor nobility, those below sword rank, were employed as kerns (lightly armoured skirmishers using javelins and short swords) but still wore the yellow tunics of the nobility. Bows were typically a weapon associated with those of base birth. We know that cavalry was used and of a high quality often remarked upon. They are often cited as carrying spears overhand and additionally often equipped with javelins. It is only a presumption that they were used as hit and run type units but that does seem reasonable.

That, what we think of as most Irish of military fighters, the Gallowglass arrived in the mid 12th century as the bodyguard of a Scots Princess and lingered about until the 16th century when they were replaced by musket and pike. The name roughly means young foreigners. These were heavily armed and somewhat armoured noble mercenaries. They were usually recruited from the outer Scottish Isles and were of Norse/Gaelic stock. Several clans later had holdings in Ireland, but they were usually hired for a summer term of service. A formalised unit of Gallowglass consisted of 80 fighters of that name and three retainers each making for a grand total of 320 men plus horses. Two of the three retainers were chiefly concerned with the horses. These men did however, fight, sometimes in relays spelling their man, sometimes most together and occasionally as a mounted auxiliary. These troops we extremely unlikely to route preferring instead to fight to the death rather then submit to capture and humiliation.

Humiliation was inevitable with capture, as formal surrenders were taken with a sword or spear point thrust into the mouth.

I don't know if this has shed much light on such a complex subject but I do hope in the future to see an Ireland with four or more provinces and not have Tara featured as anything more than a ceremonial location.

The Irish were never exactly nationalistic and surly anything but united other than for a brief time in the early 11th century but it was also largely unconquered until the flight of the Earls in the 1600s and still fractured to this day.

Drogheda was a port settlement when the Romans went to trade. Donegal Town was a major export centre as well as Sligo and others. Cork was almost always the most important port. Dublin was symbolic capital of foreign occupation. Let's have a little more verity and imagination when we look out to that island to the west.