ABSTRACT
In the year after the sack of Iona the Vikings appeared for the first time on the West coast of Ireland, to destroy the monastery of Innishmurray, off the coast of Sligo, and afterwards to land and harry some part of the neighbouring mainland. This was the first of a series of raids upon the inland, which was not to cease for three generations. In 812–13–14 the invaders are heard of everywhere in Ulster, Connaught and Munster, sometimes repulsed, but more often successfully plundering some great shrine, after having routed the bands of the local king. The English expeditions of the Vikings from 834 to 865 were pressed far less vigorously than their Continental expeditions. It was only after the last-named year that the lands on this side of the North Sea became the more important front of the Viking attack, and drew off for a time the main body of their forces.
