The first known Viking or Norse raid in Ireland happened on Lambay Island off the coast of Dublin in 795 AD.
Over the next few decades there were more raids and several settlements in coastal areas. These settlements probably began as seasonal trading bases but quickly became year-round, with cemeteries, streets and walls.
Society at this time was made up of numerous petty kings and dynasties who fought, traded and intermarried. The Norse traders and settlers were quickly embroiled in this, as mercenaries but also as a political force of their own to be reckoned with.
These Norse settlers quickly intermarried with local people, while at the same time the maintaining strong family links with other Norse in the north of England and Scotland. There seem to have been fewer links between the Irish Norse and Scandinavia. A hybrid Norse-Gaelic language seems to have developed in some of the settlements.
