DBA Armies

This list covers Irish armies from the first documented instance of co-operation between Irish and Norse until the introduction of good skirmishing cavalry and substantial amounts of armour. It is the period of Brian Boru, who in old age at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 remained stationary in a pavilion or booth surrounded by guards. The upper classes wore a long usually bleached linen shirt “leine” and a coloured (often purple, crimson or green) fringed mantle “brat”. The lower classes wore short jackets and tight knee or ankle-length trews. Their clothing was usually natural or bleached wool or linen and colours restricted by a sometimes ignored law to yellow, white or black. Hair and beards were untrimmed. Light javelins remained the chief weapon, but the best troops now supplemented them with a heavy-headed (but usually 1- handed) axe able to defeat Viking armour. Poorer warriors substituted a short sword/long knife. Shields were small and round. While there were often horsemen who sometimes clashed, the better of them usually dismounted to fight, while their attendant “horse boys” went ravaging and crop burning. “Rising-out” were emergency home defence levies, many of whom threw stones by hand. Ostmen were townsmen from Viking colonies on the coast. “Dibernach” is a collective term for warrior bands such as the “Sons of Death”, fierce in attack and unrestrained in behaviour. Gall Gaidhil were Islesman mercenaries. References: Armies of the Dark Ages 1. Heath, Armies of Feudal Europe 1. Heath, Irish Battles G.A Hayes-McCoy.