Rose Festival / Viking Battle

Rose Festival / Viking Battle by Ann Treacy

July 22, 2011, 1:17 pm
Filed under: Dublin

It’s kind of a funny mix – but yesterday we wet to the Rose Festival and the Viking Festival in St Anne’s Park, which is on the other side of the harbor from us. I know this will be meaningless to most readers – but for my friend in the know…We made a tactical error on the journey and got off the DART at Contarf – then we walked down the coast road to the park. So that added about 3 miles to the beginning of our day. (You can take ‘em out of the South Side – but not help them read a map.)

Anyways we were very lucky with the weather on the walk to the park. And fortunately I really like to walk and the rest of the posse will sort of follow without much complaint – but we were happy when we finally got there. The Rose Festival was really a series of booths – inclduing some very delicious food. We walked around. We watched a band for a while. Aine did a craft project. We saw some very pretty roses. Patrick bought books.

The just a few yards away really – was the Viking Festival. The big deal was reenactment of the Clontarf Battle. For those who didn’t attend (or pay that much attention in history class) …

The Battle of Clontarf (Irish: Cath Chluain Tarbh) took place on 23 April 1014 between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: composed mainly of his own men, Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the Orkney Islands led by his cousin Sigtrygg, as well as the one rebellious king from the province of Ulster. It ended in a rout of the Máel Mórda’s forces, along with the death of Brian, who was killed by a few Norsemen who were fleeing the battle and stumbled upon his tent. After the battle, Ireland returned to a fractious status quo between the many small, separate kingdoms that had existed for some time.

We saw the reenactment, which was kind of fun. It was also kind of fun to hear the cheers and jeers from the audience. It was all good natured – but funny. They recreated the battle three times – demonstrating three battle approaches. The funny thing was that once the actors were dead – the emcee would “call to Valhalla” to revive them for next variation on battle

On the way home we got caught in a serious downpour. It’s been raining ever since.