Battle of Clontarf: Thomond

clipped from generation13.com Brian Boru was from a group of people so obscure that they adopted a fictitious, but more prestigious name, the 'Dál gCais' (Dalcassians in the plural). They occupied a territory that straddled the largest river in Ireland, the River Shannon, a territory that would later be known as the Kingdom of Thomond and that incorporates portions of the present day counties of Clare and Limerick. The Shannon served as an easy route by which raids could be made against the province of Connacht (to the river's west) and Meath (to its east). Both Boru's father, Cennétig mac Lorcáin and his older brother Mathgamain conducted river-borne raids, raids in which the young Boru would undoubtedly have participated. Another important influence upon the Dalcassians, including Brian Boru, was the presence of the Hiberno-Norse city of Limerick on an island in the estuary of the Shannon River (known today as King's Island).