Saor Sìorraidh


 * Saor Sìorraidh
 * by Dan McCollum
 * 14 March 2002


 * From The Birth of the Irish Kingdom
 * by Sean McErik

With the fall of Dublin in 407 [1175 CE] to the forces of Patrick O'Sullivan, and his subsequent coronation as High King Patrick I, an era came to an end. The once proud and mighty Kingdom of Dublin had been pulled down and destroyed by the very people it had once ruled. Now it its place stood the Kingdom of Ireland; proud, energetic, Celtic and Christian.

With the crushing of the last remaining Submissives in Wales in 410, Patrick I had restored, and expanded upon, the borders of the Kingdom of Dublin at its height. However, the Kingdom itself lay in shambles. Years of civil war had decimated former-Dublin, and the revolt of the Irish had further damaged the land and people. Much of Patrick's work, during his 21 year reign, would be devoted, not to military expansion, but the creation of a stable government and the rebuilding of the Kingdom itself.

The fall of the Kingdom of Dublin had left Ireland in a state of collapse. A small minority, roughly 2-3 percent of the popularion, ruled a hostile and alien population which could only be brought in line by military force or bought off with prosperity. Adding to the problem was the religious divide, in which the official state religion was followed by less than ten percent of the population, a majority of its followers being foreign colonizers. By law, only Submissives could carry weapons and, because of this, much of the merchant class and most of the sailors were members of the Submissive faith; many Christians would have rightly feared to sail upon the seas unarmed. Furthermore, the entire military consisted of the landed nobility and their followers who were, once again, all Submissives.

The Seven Years War had decimated this traditional ruling class. The Marcher Lords, who supplied most of the Kingdom’s armed men, were nearly wiped out, leaving the way open for the unconquered Irish clans of the West to raid deep into the Kingdom and, eventually, overthrow it. In addition, the destruction of much of the Kingdom’s warships and merchant vessels left it weak and impoverished, unable to raise troops or hire mercenaries for its own defense. Ragnar VII had mortgaged much of the Crown’s future revenue for the next ten years in order to raise loans from banking houses in York and Paris. Patrick was faced with the equally unattractive choices of either assuming his predecessor’s debts, leaving his administration strapped for cash; or repudiating them, which would ruin Ireland’s credit.

Although these issues would all have to be dealt with in due course, Patrick spent the first few years of his reign securing his own control over all of the Irish people. In 408 he brought his full might down upon the remaining Free Clans who had not allied with him. By the end of the year all of the clans had been defeated except for the O'Neil who were under siege in their Dunboy stronghold. Strangely enough, and to the surprise of his contemporaries, Patrick was able to negotiate an agreement with the O'Neil, promising them some lands in the former "Free Clan" areas, as well as marrying a daughter of the O'Neil chief and securing his own right to rule. 409 found the High King dealing with revolts by the remaining Submissive lords of Scotland, as well as the Welsh rebellion which was defeated in 410.

These years were not spent constantly at war. In 408, for instance, Patrick issued his historic "Tolerance Decree", placing the Submissive minority under the direct protection of the crown. Although it became illegal for any Christian to convert to Submission, members of the Faith of Ragnar were given the right to practice their religion free of any restriction. There were many reasons for the High King’s act; to gain the support amongst the former upper class and access to the wealth of many Submissives; to avoid war with the neighboring Submissive Deputate of England; as well an earnest wish to have peace in his realm.

Patrick also knew, deep in his heart, that the Irish had no real history of a united government. Although the O'Neil had ruled as High Kings for centuries, their power had been limited to their strength of arms, and even when the King was brilliant his power was often non-existent. It was a tendency which the new King wanted to reverse entirely. Luckily, for him, the Norse invasion, the rise of Dublin and the fall of the Kingdom had all worked to nearly destroy the traditional Irish ruling class all over the lands except in the areas of the former Free Clans as well as Eastern Scotland.

Patrick set about dividing his Kingdom upon traditional lines into several smaller sub-Kingdoms; these being Meath, Connaucht, Ulster, Scotland, and Wales among others. Each sub-Kingdom would be ruled by a Ri who was one of Patrick’s loyal supporters. Such Ri were forced to make a personal pledge of allegiance to the Ard Ri and surrender hostages to him. Each Ri was permitted only a small personal retinue for his defense and was banned from constructing any stone castles or other defense structures without the assent of the Ard Ri. Furthermore, succession for the Ri was not hereditary, and it was within the right of the High King to remove or grant the position to any man he wished.

There was also the matter of the military. Before the coming of the Northmen the Irish army had been little more than war bands loyal to a local leader who roamed the land raiding and pillaging. Although this system made for stirring tales for the bards and young children, it would not be an effective way to keep control over the vast Irish Kingdom. Patrick I needed a loyal standing army, and his method for getting one was brilliant. As the Ard Ri was the supreme military commander in the land, he was able assume control over each Ri's personal retinue in times of campaign or crisis. Furthermore, every three years, each Ri was required to raise a certain number of troops from his land to be sent to Dublin to serve as the High King's royal bodyguard and personal army known as the Fenians. While they served the High King they were loyal to no one other than the Ard Ri himself. High King Patrick of course was careful not to test the loyalty of any body of troops by sending them against their own Ri; the Fenians were always used against foreign threats or rival Kings.

The new High King was no less ambitious in matters of culture. Understanding that his Kingdom was a Christian island in a Submissive sea, Patrick attempted to open up links to the more advanced, and cultured, Christian world to the South. He invited Christians of all lands suffering persecution to seek sanctuary within his borders, welcoming intellectuals of all stripes. In 415 [1187 CE] the University of Dublin was opened as a school based upon the models of those in the Empire, and was presided over by refugees from Persia, intellectuals from Imperial Spain, Greece and Anatolia, and scholars who had fled the House of Submission. In 418 [1190 CE] Patrick issued perhaps his most controversial decrees opening Ireland to Jewish immigrants. Patrick’s Decree on the Children of Abraham brought about a confrontation with the Cennedites which came near to costing him the throne and led to the destruction of the Crusader movement in Ireland. FN1

By the time of his death in March of 428, [1200 CE] Patrick had revolutionized life in Ireland. Stringing together the shattered remains of the former Kingdom of Dublin, he created something new, something that Europe had never seen before. Although it would take several more decades for Ireland to truly recover from the damage of the Seven Years War and the Irish Revolt, the land was well upon its way and was already displaying trends that would play out in the future. Patrick deserves to be considered the Founding Father of modern Ireland, all those years ago.

On a rainy day in April 428, Patrick's son was crowned Ard Ri Finn I at Tara. His reign would be, if not as innovative as that his father, at least long and relatively peaceful and give the Kingdom the time and strength it needed to prosper in the world.

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