Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting RuinsRussell, Thomas O'Neill
History
Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting Ruins
Russell, Thomas O'Neill
Ireland -- Antiquities; Ireland -- Description and travel
An interesting as well as gruesome illustration of what Ireland suffered
from Danish raids was revealed some few years ago while workmen were
levelling ground for the erection of a house at Donnybrook, near Dublin.
They unearthed the skeletons of over six hundred people, of almost all
ages; from those of full-grown men to those of babies, all buried in one
grave, and only about eighteen inches under the surface. This vast grave
was close to the banks of the little river Dodder. The Northmen had
evidently gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had
enough of water to float them. By some chance the leader, or one of the
leaders, of the Danes was killed in the foray, for his body was found a
little distance from the grave of the victims. His sword was buried with
him; it was of recognised Danish make, and had a splendid hilt inlaid with
silver. Not a vestige of clothing or ornaments was found on the bodies of
the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them.
Everything they had seems to have been taken. A village had evidently
stood in the locality; it was raided by the Danes, the inhabitants all
killed, and everything of value they possessed, even to their clothing,
taken; for if they had been buried in their clothing, which must have been
almost entirely of woollen material, which resists decay for a long time,
some vestige of it would have been discovered. The remains of the victims
of the massacre were carefully examined by the most eminent scientists and
archæologists of Dublin, among them Dr Wm. Fraser, who wrote an article on
the discovery that may be seen in the transactions of the Royal Irish
Academy. Irish history and annals are silent about this terrible massacre,
and it is hardly to be wondered at that they should not have mentioned it,
for such things were of such frequent occurrence in Ireland during the
time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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