Awe the Irish, they never have a happy ending. Mar 02, Dejaan Lafleur rated it it was amazing. Great Fictional Irish Story!!! What a wonderful book. I enjoyed reading and watching movies about the Vikings, and this book peaked my interest, that why I downloaded it to read. I was not disappointed.. Overall this book is very well written, Author Mark Mahon has made sure that it got top notch editing and formatting whi Great Fictional Irish Story!!! Overall this book is very well written, Author Mark Mahon has made sure that it got top notch editing and formatting which just adds to the enjoyment of the book, so grab this book and enjoy a weekend of a fun read about the Irish Revolutionary, Brian Boru in his pursuit of saving Ireland.
Apr 15, Hillary rated it it was ok. I can't remember why I wanted to read this book--I think I was interested in the history and legends of Brian Boru. I picked up this book at a used book store, months ago. The book was okay, but not fascinating. Lots of battle stories, if that appeals.
I know a little bit about Boru, but that's about all. Nov 05, Robert Clay rated it liked it. Brian Boru was an Irish king who eventually became High King of Ireland, uniting the island's traditionally warring tribes and pacifying the Vikings in the process. This is actually a youth edition which I picked up at a book fair for pittance. The original novel is entitled "The Lion of Ireland". Apr 27, Leslie D. Soule rated it it was amazing Shelves: This novel was excellently written, easy to understand and relate to.
I very much enjoyed it!!! Feb 24, Heather rated it really liked it Recommended to Heather by: Another one I missed somehow, and it has the same character as another of her books. May 01, Courtney rated it liked it. This was not what I was expecting. It's written at a middle school level when I thought it would be an adult historical fiction, so I was disappointed. Jan 15, Timothy Boyd rated it really liked it. A great historical fiction book. The writer really brings to life this great warrior of Ireland. A very enjoyable book.
Oct 16, Beth Reilly rated it it was amazing. Anything written by Morgan Llywelyn about Ireland is excellent! Brent rated it it was amazing Feb 08, Erin rated it it was amazing Mar 17, The most successful of these was Lion of Ireland - The Legend of Brian Boru , which was published in and has sold into the millions of copies.
The Odyssey of the Irish. Her third novel for young readers, entitled Star Dancer , The O'Brien Press was drawn from her experience of the world of showjumping and dressage. She has also written The Vikings in Ireland , an exploration of what actually happened when the Norsemen landed in Ireland. Morgan's latest book for children is Pirate Queen , the story of Grace O'Malley, told partly through letters from Granuaile to her beloved son.
It is a thrilling tale of adventure that brings this unorthodox and inspiring historical figure to life. Fascinating details of life in Ireland years ago are interwoven in an ingenious way throughout the story. We all tend to fall in love with our research In Brian Boru I tried to tell children what they would like to know about the man and his time.
The O'Brien Press - Brian Boru - Emperor of the Irish By Morgan Llywelyn
Brian campaigned against these enemies in Many Irish annals state that Brian was in his 88th year when he fell in the Battle of Clontarf in If true, this would mean that he was born as early as or Brian was born at Kincora, Killaloe , a town in the region of Tuadmumu. When their father died, the kingship of Tuadmumu passed to Brian's older brother, Mathgamain , and, when Mathgamain was killed in , Brian replaced him. Subsequently, he became the king of the entire kingdom of Munster.
At the time of his birth, around year , there were kings in Ireland and one High King.
The River Shannon served as an easy route by which raids could be made against the provinces of Connacht and Meath. This was probably the root of his appreciation for naval forces in his later career. Thus an important influence upon the Dalcassians was the presence of the Hiberno-Norse city of Limerick on an isthmus around which the Shannon River winds known today as King's Island or the Island Field.
The Norse had made many a raid themselves from the Shannon, and the Dalcassians likely benefited from some interaction with them, from which they would have been exposed to innovations such as superior weapons and ship design, all factors that may have contributed to their growing power. He then allowed some of the Norse to remain in their settlement, but they were wealthy and now central to trade in the region, with a fleet of great value. Having established unchallenged rule over his home Province of Munster, Brian turned to extending his authority over the neighboring provinces of Leinster to the east and Connacht to the north.
He suffered quite a few reverses in this struggle, but appears to have learned from his setbacks. He developed a military strategy that would serve him well throughout his career: Brian's naval forces, which included contingents supplied by the Hiberno-Norse cities that he brought under his control, provided both indirect and direct support for his forces on land. Indirect support involved a fleet making a diversionary attack on an enemy in a location far away from where Brian planned to strike with his army.
Direct support involved naval forces acting as one arm in a strategic pincer , the army forming the other arm. Thus, in , the opposing armies fought the Battle of Glenmama. The Irish annals all agree that this was a particularly fierce and bloody engagement, although claims that it lasted from morning until midnight, or that the combined Leinster-Dublin force lost 4, killed are open to question. In any case, Brian followed up his victory, as he and his brother had in the aftermath of the Battle of Sulcoit thirty-two years before, by capturing and sacking the enemy's city.
Once again Brian opted for reconciliation; he requested Sigtrygg to return and resume his position as ruler of Dublin, giving Sigtrygg the hand of one of his daughters in marriage, just as he had with the Eoganacht King, Cian. The struggle over who would control all of Ireland was renewed.
The provinces of Meath and Connacht were separated by the Shannon River, which served as both a route by which Brian's naval forces could attack the shores of either province and as a barrier to the two rulers providing mutual support for each other. These bridges would serve as both obstacles preventing Brian's fleet from traveling up the Shannon and a means by which the armies of the provinces of Meath and Connacht could cross over into each other's kingdoms.
There have been some doubts expressed about this explanation, given Brian's style of engaging in war; if he had found his opponent at a disadvantage it is most likely he would have taken full advantage of it rather than allowing his enemy the time to even the odds.
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It is generally accepted that in Brian became the new High King of Ireland. Unlike some who had previously held the title, Brian intended to be High King in more than name. To accomplish this he needed to impose his will upon the regional rulers of the only province that did not already recognise his authority, Ulster.
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Ulster's geography presented a formidable challenge. There were three main routes by which an invading army could enter the province, and all three favoured the defenders. Brian first had to find a means of getting through or around these defensive ' choke points ', and then he had to subdue the fiercely independent regional Kings of Ulster. It took Brian ten years of campaigning to achieve his goal, which, considering that he could and did call on all of the military forces of the rest of Ireland, indicates how formidable the Kings of Ulster were.
Once again, it was his coordinated use of forces on land and at sea that allowed him to triumph; while the rulers of Ulster could bring the advance of Brian's army to a halt, they could not prevent his fleet from attacking the shores of their kingdoms. Once Brian entered the province of Ulster, he systematically defeated each of the regional rulers who defied him, forcing them to recognise him as their overlord. It was during this process that Brian pursued an alternative means of consolidating his control, not merely over the province of Ulster, but over Ireland as a whole.
In contrast to its structure elsewhere, the Church in Ireland was centred, not around the bishops of dioceses and archbishops of archdioceses , but rather around monasteries headed by powerful abbots who were members of the royal dynasties of the lands in which their monasteries resided. Among the most important monasteries was Armagh , located in the Province of Ulster.
Brian's advisor, Maelsuthain O'Carroll , documented in the ' Book of Armagh ' that, in the year , Brian donated 22 ounces of gold to this monastery and declared that Armagh was the religious capital of Ireland, to which all other monasteries should send the funds they collected. This was a clever move, for the supremacy of the monastery of Armagh would last only so long as Brian remained the High King. Therefore, it was in the interest of Armagh to support Brian with all their wealth and power. Though it is only speculation, it has been suggested that Brian and the Church in Ireland were together seeking to establish a new form of kingship in Ireland, one that was modelled after the kingships of England and France, in which there were no lesser ranks of regional kings — simply one king who had or sought to have power over all in a unitary state.
In any case, whether as High King or Emperor, by all of the regional rulers in Ireland acknowledged Brian's authority. No sooner had this been achieved than it was lost again.
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He found one in a regional ruler in Ulster who had only recently submitted to Brian. In Brian led a force from his own province of Munster and from southern Connacht into Leinster; a detachment under his son Murchad ravaged the southern half of the province of Leinster for three months. The forces under Murchad and Brian were reunited on 9 September outside the walls of Dublin. The city was blockaded, but it was the High King's army that ran out of supplies first, so that Brian was forced to abandon the siege and return to Munster around Christmas.