General Notes

Aodh ruled as the 164th Milesian Monarch of Ireland from 792 to 817. In his
reign prodigious thunder and lightning occurred which killed 1010 people,
particularly in a nook between Corcavaskin and the sea of Munster. Danish
invasions soon after followed his reign. "Ten years with cour score and seven
hundred was the age of Christ when the Pagans went to Irelan". The Vikings or
Danes, having been defeated in Glamorganshire in Wales, invaded Ireland in the
reign of this Monarch. In 798, he ravaged the Isle of Man, and the Hebrides
in Scotland. In 802, they burned "Hi Colum Cille". In 807, for the first
time in Ireland, they marched inland. In 812 and 813, they made raids in
Connaught and Munster. After 30 years of predatory warfare, Turgesius, a
Norwegian Prince, established himself as sovereign of the Vikings, and made
Armagh his headquarters in 830. Sometimes, the Danish chiefs mustered all
their forces and left the island for brief periods to raid the shores of
England or Scotland. Wild, Brave and cruel, they always returned to inflict
new barbarities on the unfortunate Irish. Turgesius appropriated the abbeys
and the churches in the country and placed an abbot of his own in each
monastery.
A Danish captain was placed in charge of each village, and each family was
obliged to maintain a soldier of that nation, who made himself master of the
house. All education was strictly forbidden, and books were burned, and the
poets and historians were drowned or imprisoned or driven into the woods or
mountains. n 948, the Danes were converted to Christianity, and at that time
possessed Dublin, Limerick, Wexford and Waterford. He was slain in the Battle
of Fearta.