1014: Brian Boru & the Battle for Ireland Read Online Free Page A

entered a monastery young Brian was sent too to study at the great monastic centres of Clonmacnois and Inisfallen. These were staffed by highly educated monks who had studied throughout Europe. Under their strict tutelage Brian learned to read Greek and Latin. He memorised the careers of Caesar and Charlemagne, studied the tactics of Xenophon’s cavalry and the deployment of the naval fleet of Xerxes. His mind was like a sponge, thirstily soaking up information.
    When Brian was ten years old his father was killed in battle by Callahan of the Owenacht tribe. Several of Brian’s brothers suffered a similar fate. Four years after Kennedy’s death, Brian’s oldest surviving brother, Mahon, acceded to their father’s title as king of Thomond.It was a kingship lacking much in the way of power or royal prerogatives, but this probably suited Mahon, who was not a warrior by nature but a kindly, gentle man. He preferred negotiation to confrontation as a way of protecting his tribe.
    Unfortunately, confrontation was the way things were achieved in Ireland. In 959 the Owenacht king of Munster died and another prince of his tribe, a man called Molloy, declared himself king and set up court at Cashel.
    During the years when Brian was occupied with his studies, Mahon followed the path of expediency. He began trading with the Norse settlers along the Shannon, who bought the furs of seal, otter, badger and fox from the Dalcassians. Mahon made a number of concessions to those same settlers in order to keep peace. Inevitably , he quarrelled with his youngest brother, who had now completed his education. Brian saw everything in black and white; as far as he was concerned Mahon was a traitor. While still in his late teens Brian broke with his brother completely. Gathering a company of young, like-minded followers, he struck out into the mountains of east Clare to fight the foreigners on his own terms.
    His little band was clothed in coarse homespun wool or in deer hide and often went barefoot. Their weapons included the iron-bladed Irish axe – a basic, multi- purpose implement equally suited to domestic use – and the javelin. Belted around their waists was a thrusting sword. When their weapons were damaged they learned to repair them themselves. They fashioned circular shields out of wood. They used both their spears and the bow and arrow in order to live off the land, hunting wild boar in the forest and brown hare on the meadows, spearing fish in the rivers, trapping badgers and weasels as they emerged from their dens. They even collected bats from their caves if all else failed. Of necessity, the young rebels learned to eat almost anything.
    Around their necks they wore leather bags containing a day’s provisions of dried meat and hazelnuts. If they were lucky, they might be given a bit of hard cheese by some sympathetic herder. They became very tough and very resilient. They were warriors.
    Lightly armed and lightly equipped, Brian’s band was a highly mobile force. They were well able to swoop down from the hills and fall on their enemies. Their traditional method of warfare, inherited from their Celtic ancestors , was to rush forward in no particular order and try to overcome the enemy by sheer force. The side with numerical superiority usually won.
    At first the Irish were almost exterminated by powerfully built Norse husbands and fathers who had betterweapons. After the initial shock, Brian responded by introducing his band to a code of discipline which he had gleaned from his classical studies. His ideas must have seemed incomprehensible to the young rebels. He realised they could not count on numerical superiority because they did not have it. There had to be another way to win. There was: he discovered within himself a gift for tactical ingenuity. A careful study of the annals reveals that Brian Boru mastered the art of guerrilla warfare long before the term was invented.
    He learned to use the land itself as a weapon.