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Between the coming of St. Patrick and the Vikings, Irish politics changed considerably and one could almost see the beginnings of a move towards a single political entity. While still many small kingdoms and tribes abounded, by the 9th Century the country was dominated by 2 high kingdoms, the O'Neills in the North who ruled from Tara, and by the Eoganachta in the South who ruled from Cashel. These two powers fought each other so fiercely for control that they tended to nullify each other. This meant that when the Vikings came to Ireland in the first of the modern invasions that was to see the eventual conquest of the country, they encountered no significant organized resistance.
Vikings actually came as early as 795 AD to Ireland and they were fierce warriors who sacked and looted the monasteries for their riches. Their raids lasted over two hundred years and it was during this time that many of Ireland's treasures in the monasteries were sent to the continent or buried for safe-keeping, or just looted by the invaders. Many were lost for ever and a valuable part of Ireland's history disappeared at this time. The Vikings were not just invaders intent on ransacking every monastery though. They founded Ireland's first city, Dublin at the mouth of the Liffey in 841, and they also demonstrated the urge to settle just as the Celts did. They even took on Christianity as those had done before them and they also left us the name of the country with the help of the Gaels. For Eire is an old Gaelic name for the country and land is Scandinavian, hence, Eire-land or Ireland as we know it today. In fact the Vikings, instead of keeping apart as a warrior race, soon found themselves drawn into Gaelic Irish affairs and became subsumed generally into the Irish culture.
In the North the Vikings were eventually subdued by the O'Neills and eventually the only Norse kingdom that remained was Dublin and surrounding area.
