A look at our Viking silver hoards

JOHN SHEEHAN of the Archaeology Department, UCC, will present an illustrated lecture on Viking silver hoards on Monday, 11 February, at 8pm in Ballincollig Rugby Club.

These hoards - well over 100 of them have been found in Ireland - represent a concentration of Viking wealth in Ireland which is not seen in Viking settlements elsewhere. The lecture is organised by Muskerry Local History Society.

The first reference to an assault on Cork ‘ by the foreigners’, which was a term used to describe the Vikings, comes from the 820 entry in the Irish Annals of the Four Masters. The attraction for the raiders was possibly the monastery of St Finbarr that had been founded some two hundred years earlier.

In 838 the Vikings burned Cork, as reported by the same Annals, and soon after a Viking settlement was established, centred on what is now North Main St in the city.