[79] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 931; _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 960, 1036, 1042, etc. See also Whitley Stokes: _On the Gaelic Names in the Landnámabók_ (_Revue Celtique_, III., pp. 186-191). [80] From the contemporary Irish poems the _Book of Rights_ and _The Curcuit of Muirchertach Mac Neill_ it may be inferred that in ancient Ireland all payments were made in kind. With the extension of trade, however, it is probable that many Anglo-Saxon and other foreign coins--including those of the Scandinavian Kings of Northumbria, several of whom also reigned in Ireland--came to be circulated in Ireland. The Vikings in England struck coins there during the reign of Halfdanr (d. 877). (Cf. C. F. Keary: _Catalogue of Coins in the British Museum_, I., p. 202). [81] One of these fugitives wrote the following lines on the margin of Priscian’s Latin Grammar in the monastery of St. Gall, Switzerland: “Is acher ingaith innocht fufuasna fairge findfolt, Ni agor reimm mora minn dond laechraid lainn na lothlind.” (_Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus_. Ed. Stokes and Strachan, II., 290.) _i.e._, Bitter is the wind to-night, It tosses the ocean’s white hair; To-night I fear not the fierce warriors of Norway Coursing on the Irish Sea. (Translation by Kuno Meyer: _Ancient Irish Poetry_, p. 101.) [82] See Margaret Stokes: _Early Christian Architecture in Ireland_, p. 127. [83] G. Coffey: _A Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian Period_ (National Museum, Dublin) pp. 29, 49 and 62. [84] _Ib._, p. 17. CHAPTER III. THE GROWTH OF THE SEAPORT TOWNS. The foundation of the seaport towns was the most important, and at the same time the most permanent effect of the Viking invasion of Ireland. Before this the only towns were the larger monastic centres[85] at Armagh, Clonmacnois, Durrow and Clonfert, which, besides the monastery itself, consisted of numerous beehive-shaped houses of stone, or small huts of clay and wattles built for the accommodation of the students attending the schools. During the first half of the ninth century these monasteries suffered sorely from the attacks of Viking raiders. After a stubborn resistance on the part of the Irish, Armagh fell into the hands of Turgeis, who drove out the abbot Farannan and “usurped the abbacy” (c. A.D. 839). Some years later Armagh was abandoned when the Vikings captured Dublin, at this time a small “town by the hurdle ford,”[86] but they were quick to realise its possibilities as the seat of their monarchy and the chief centre of their trade. As a result of the struggle for ecclesiastical supremacy, which took place at a later period[87] between Armagh and Dublin, the Bishops of Dublin were obliged to acknowledge the Primate of Armagh; but the latter town never recovered its former prestige as the capital of Ireland.[88]