Alternate Irelands: Where The Gaels Are So Pretty

By Gary Oswald. The Gaels and the Norse battle for control of Ireland at the Battle of Clontarf, as imagined in 1905 by Eoghan Ó Neachtain. Public domain courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Ireland prior to 800 AD was almost entirely rural. There were settlements but these were normally either ringforts where in a clan would find shelter during wars or monasteries and religious schools for Catholic…