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The Irish annals say, that when Diarmid, King of Leinster (AD. 1052), had vanquished and put to flight the King of Dublin, Eachmargath (in the sagas called Marga~r), son of Ragnvald (Reginald), he was for some time Lord of Dublin, together with his son Murchad, who made the Island of Man tributary (AD. 1060), having defeated " MacReginald" (the son of Ragnvald).
Ordericus Vitalis who generally is very accurate and trustworthy, says that the reason why King Magnus made the great expedition in 1098, was this, that having made a treaty with the Irish king Muircertach, and even married his daughter, he found that Muircertach played him false, wherefore he both sent him his daughter back, and afterwards in person went to the West with a powerful fleet. Although this certainly was not the sole motive why Magnus went there, yet there is no reason to question the facts themselves; the treaty here spoken of must accordingly have taken place before 1098, that is to say, during the first expedition in 1093-94.
The Irish annals explain it. Muircertach, grandson of Brian Boromy, who had succeeded his father Tirdelvagh in 1080 as King of Munster, was engaged in a fierce war with his rival for the supreme power, Donald O'Lochlan, King of Ulster. In 1094 the war raged in the neighbourhood of Dublin, and among the princes who fought on Donald's side was Godred Crovan, who had brought no less than ninety ships. Muircertach was at first completely routed, but afterwards returning, he got the upper hand over Gødred, and expelled him from Dublin. Remembering that just at the same the King Magnus was within his fleet near the coasts of Ireland, we are justified in making the combination that Muircertach sought and obtained his alliance against Gødred Crovan, and that Magnus took Lagman prisoner chiefly to have a hold upon the father, who might thereby be so much easier compelled to resign his lordship of Dublin to Muircertach.
Muirchertach occurs in the annals 23 times: 882, 941, 943, 977, 1057, 1060, 1089, 1092, 1102, 1114, 1202, 1264, 1459, 1466, 1471, 1472, 1495, 1507, 1510, 1547, 1593, 1597, 1598.
- Middle Irish Gaelic (c900-c1200) nominative form: Muirchertach
- Middle Irish Gaelic (c900-c1200) genitive form: Muirchertaig
- Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c1200-c1700) nominative form: Muircheartach
- Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c1200-c1700) genitive form: Muircheartaigh
In the Saga itself for King Magnus having helped Muircertach to take Dublin, forasmuch as it is said that this was done in 1102, on the last expedition of Magnus to the West. But as it is sure enough that the capture of Dublin by Muircertach took place in 1094, and it has been sufficiently shown that the author of the Saga sometimes assigns to one of the three expeditions what belongs to another, we are fully entitled to believe that the same error has been committed here, and that the author, in speaking of this event, is not mistaken as to the fact, but only as to the time, which was 1094, not 1102. The physical description by Dicul of these islands fits the Faeroes well, as does the name, which means Sheep Islands. It seems likely that the Irish had reached the Faeroes first, and that the Vikings came to these lands after raiding and trading in the Western Isles, instead of by accident as the sagas suggest. Dicuil also describes another island, Thule, beyond the Faeroes, where the water is mostly ice-free and the sun barely dips below the horizon around the summer solstice.
The Icelanders’ own records (Landnámabók) mention around 400 original settlers, over fifty of whom had names that implied mixed Irish ancestry, or Celtic nicknames denoting considerable time spent outside Scandinavia, 38 of which had been powerful chieftains in Norway. Or the majority of Icelanders have a Gaelic matrilinear lineage in contrast to the approximately 80% Norse patrilinear lineage of Icelandic men. Eric the Red (also Erik Thorvaldson, Eirik Raude or Eirik Torvaldsson) was a native of Norway and the founder of the first European settlement in Greenland. In 986 he left Iceland with more than 20 ships and around 400-500 people. He arrived in Greenland with 14 boats and an estimated 350 colonizers.
The Saga of the People of Laxardal mentions a haughty slave-girl with no appreciation of her duties, brought to Iceland already pregnant with the child of her Viking captor. She is eventually revealed as Melkorka (Mael-Curchaich?), the daughter of the Irish king Myrkjartan (Muircertach?), kidnapped at fifteen years of age. The Norse matriarch Aude of Dublin the Deep-Minded, who figures large in the Icelanders’ tales of the first settlers, brought many Irish slaves with her from Dublin where her late husband Olaf the White had been king. After unsuccessfully relocating to Caithness, where her son Thorsteinn the Red was killed, Aude of Dublin and her entourage gave up on the harsh life on the Celtic fringe and set out for pastures new. The stories of the early Milesian Kings is a mix of fictional as well as historical accounts of these early settlers to Ireland.
[940 A.D] Orlaith, daughter of Cennedigh, son of Lorcan, was put to death by Donnchadh ["Orlaith was the wife of Donnchadh"], son of Flann, King of Erinn, after having intrigued with Aengus, his son. Muircertach, son of Niall, went to Caisel, to exact pledges [for his submission to the Monarch of Ireland, against whose supremacy Ceallachan had offended by the devastation of Midhe, or Meath, two years before."] from Ceallachan, King of Caisel, and he brought Ceallachan with him, and delivered him into the hands of Donncha[dh], son of Flann, King of Erinn.. . .
