The Battle of Clontarf

10 Apr, 2025 940 History of Europe

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the best known events and figures in Irish history. In 1014 Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, defeated the Hiberno-Norse forces of Sigtrygg Silkbeard and allies near their Dublin stronghold, with Brian losing his life on the day of battle. Soon chroniclers in Ireland and abroad were recording and retelling the events, raising the status of Brian Boru as one who sacrificed himself for Ireland, Christ-like, a connection reinforced by the battle taking place on Good Friday. While some of the facts are contested, the Battle of Clontarf became a powerful symbol of what a united Ireland could achieve by force against invaders.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • Professor Sean Duffy No other episodes
    Professor of Medieval Irish and Insular History at Trinity College Dublin
  • Professor Maire Ni Mhaonaigh No other episodes
    Professor of Celtic and Medieval Studies at the University of Cambridge
  • Professor Alex Woolf 4 episodes
    Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of St Andrews

Reading list

  • Dublin and the Viking World
    Howard B. Clarke, Sheila Dooley and Ruth Johnson (O'Brien Press Ltd, 2018) Google Books →
  • The Vikings in Ireland and Beyond: Before and After Clontarf
    Howard B. Clarke and Ruth Johnson (ed.) (Four Courts Press, 2015)
  • Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf
    Sean Duffy (Gill & Macmillan, 2014) Google Books →
  • Medieval Dublin XVI: Proceedings of Clontarf 1014-2014: National Conference Marking the Millennium of the Battle of Clontarf
    Sean Duffy (ed.) (Four Courts Press, 2017) Google Books →
  • Norse-Gaelic Contacts in a Viking World
    Colman Etchingham, Jon Vidar Sigurdsson, Maire Ni Mhaonaigh and Elizabeth Ashman Rowe (Brepols N.V., 2019) Google Books →
  • Vikings of the Irish Sea
    David Griffiths (The History Press, 2025) Google Books →
  • Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh: The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, or, the Invasions of Ireland by the Danes and other Norsemen
    James Henthorn Todd (ed. and trans.) (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Google Books →
  • Brian Boru: Ireland's greatest king?
    Maire Ni Mhaonaigh (The History Press, 2006) Google Books →
  • The Cambridge History of Ireland, vol. 1, 600-1550
    Brendan Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2018) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m0029qh3

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029qh3

Auto-category: 941.501 (History of Ireland - Medieval period)