An ghlóir na Éireann - An Alternate Ireland

Preface: Hello! I'd just like to start off by saying thank you for everyone who helped me with some of the ideas i'm using to put this timeline together. It's an Irewank/Eirewank, just to warn you! I'd also like to say that this is my first timeline and that i'm not a history expert at all, and that constructive criticism and suggestions are appreciated and welcomed! This first installment will have a slightly different format than the rest~

Prologue: The First Unification

Part One: Agricola and the Eblani
The history of Ireland, and by extension, all the lands under the Irish Commonwealth, goes back centuries. Centuries of non-unified and warring tribes stretch back farther than the records of that time. Historians to this day argue about uncertainties surrounding the earliest history of the great nation. What most historians agree on, however, is that the beginning of a unified Gaelic state started when Gnaeus Julius Agricola turned his sight towards Ireland, known by the Romans as Hibernia. Most scholars agree that it happened sometime during the late first century.

Agricola thought that the island of Hibernia could be easily subdued and held with a single Legion. And when a exiled Gaelic prince came to him, and in anger, told Agricola of most of the weaknesses of the tribes and kingdoms, it only confirmed Agricola's beliefs. The Roman general used this prince to his advantage, learning much about the Gaelic tribes and giving the prince snippets of information about the Empire itself. The two became close friends, and when Agricola asked him to return to his tribe and convince them to join Rome or be crushed, the prince obliged.

With the Roman legionaries plus natives of the island, Agricola was confident in his ability to quickly and easily take it. However, when he pleaded with the Roman government for permission to conquer the island, but was turned down. That should of been the end of it.. but it wasn't. Agricola still had his eyes on the prize. With an exiled Eblani prince at his side, he supplied the semi-loyal Gaelic tribe of Eblani with weapons and other supplies. By going through this prince, he managed to unify most of eastern and southern Hibernia into a single kingdom. The first legitimate unified Kingdom of Éireann had been formed. And the red headed prince, Féthnaid O'Rahilly, would start a dynasty that would last until modern times.

Part Two: An Empire Collapses
By the time the Western Roman Empire would collapse and be replaced by many smaller kingdoms and dukedoms, O'Rahilly Éireann stretched till the ocean on it's eastern, northern, and western borders. Only the much smaller Kingdom of Munster remained outside of their grasp. By 480, Éireann did not need the supplies or help of the empire anymore, so the fall did not harm them so much directly as it did indirectly. From the Empire's carcass, smaller territories would be carved out. Not every single one of these territories would remain on friendly terms with Éireann as the Empire did. In particular, the newly born kingdoms in Britannia would bring trouble.

The other main problem the people of Éireann had with the fall of the Empire was that the fall of Rome seemed like the fall of the Pope. And by 480, paganism had been all but eliminated on the island. Earlier, sometime around 460, a Roman-Briton by the name of St. Patrick had come to the island and converted most of the peoples to the Roman's religion. In twenty years the island had absorbed the belief like a sponge absorbs water. Yes, Éireann considered herself catholic, with it's spirit under the Pope. For a short time, the lack of communication with Rome had weakened the faith of her people. However, within the year, an envoy from Constantinople had come and assured the Archbishop of Éireann, a fellow by the name of Sil Uidir, that the Catholic Church indeed would live on.

The Kingdom of Éireann would flourish as it unconsciously shifted into a feudal system along with it's neighbors, including the Britons. The O'Rahilly Dynasty watched with glee as the much weaker Briton kingdoms warred about, weakening each other. And later on, when the Danes raided Britannia, Éireann was strong enough to defend itself. Kingdoms such as Cornwall or Wessex were not. It only became a problem for Éireann in the late 800s, when the Danish invaders conquered a rather large area of Britannia. The current high king, Cináed O'Rahilly, would have some trouble with the Vikings during his reign...

Afternote: I feel like it was worse than I thought it was going to be. :( Anyways~ I used the Eblani (Eblanoi?) because they were around what would later be Dublin. I used Féthnaid because Agricola did meet a Gaelic prince, but as far as I could tell, who he was is lost to history. Again, i'm totally up for criticism and suggestions!

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See if you can get some Roman/Irish history experts like Malta Shah or Baselius Giorgios. This TL has potential and you need the right advisors and coaches! ;)
 
Update: I added the second part of the prologue to the first, instead of posting it in a new reply~ Thank you to everyone for the encouragement! :)

Quick question: Was the war between the Danes and Alfred the Great before, after, or at the same time as the Norman Invasion of Ireland?
 
Maybe there is some leverage in exploiting the Irish colonies in Lancashire and West Wales and the Irish pirate attacks on the North Cornwall coast?
 
Chapter One: The War of Munster

Late 889 AD, Dubhlinn, Kingdom of Éireann
Cináed O'Rahilly paced nervously back and forth across the room. He'd been in a state of restlessness and unease for three weeks, waiting as his emissaries to the Danes negotiated some sort of peace treaty. The short but bloody war, which would later be known as the War of Munster, was finally at an end. It'd lasted some six months, but the death count was one of the worst in the short history of Éireann (even if you take into account that it only really had warred with smaller Gaelic tribes and the Celtic kingdoms of Britannia).

The root of the war could be traced back to the Danish invasion of Britannia. It seemed like another viking raid at the beginning. But then it all went south. The Danes landed in East Anglia, and captured most of central Britannia. They conquered several Briton kingdoms, and installed puppet rulers in those they did not. It only stopped when a King of Wessex, who the Danes would refer to as Alfred Weak-Sword, surrendered most of his territory over to them. During all of this, Cináed had just watched. He had to admit, it was rather amusing watching the bickering Briton states get squashed by the viking invaders. The amusement stopped when the Danes, who had over inflated egos from their victories in Britannia, turned towards Éireann. The pagan invaders had a barbaric and seemingly never fulfilled hunger for land.

Of course, they did not go right away and strike at Éireann. The Gaelic kingdom wasn't quite as weak as that of the Britons. Instead they sat and watched and waited, while their rivals across the sea did the same. It was a bitter game of waiting for a weakness to pop up that lasted more than half a decade. Eventually that weakness showed up, Cináed thought bitterly. Éireann won a battle against Munster, and in retaliation, the King of Munster sought an alliance with Guthrum of the Danes. The King of Munster waited, exactly as Cináed was doing now, for an answer. It took four and a half weeks, but Gurthrum agreed to Munster's pleas. Later that year, a combined Danish-Munster force attacked a fort occupied by Éireann forces, beginning the War of Munster. That first battle that started the first real war the O'Rahilly's had ever had to deal with. The forces of Munster themselves were petty. When backed with the Danish - not so petty. Éireann's army was strong, sure. But they were dealing with two armies against their one, and one of those armies had conquered most of Britannia in a very short period of time. And during those six months, while Éireann had some victories, most of the battles were won by the Danish.

The worst loss for Éireann was when the Danish took most of southern Leinster in one large swoop. However, when it seemed like all was lost, the people of Éireann struck back. One large battle was all it took for them to show the Danish army who they were messing with. That large battle would be the Battle of Eblana. Eblana was the capital of Éireann, the ancient city of the Ebani who had founded the kingdom. It's walls were not the best defended, and the city wouldn't be hard to take... but the invaders did not know that before the battle the city was evacuated in secret. The main army of Éireann was hidden behind the city while a smaller force guarded the entrance. The Danish-Munster forces easily overran the empty city. They assumed that the people and rest of the army were inside of Ebana Castle. They were wrong. As soon as the majority of the Danish-Munster army were inside the city, the hidden portion of the Éireann army struck. They trapped the invader's inside the city before setting it ablaze. Then they took down the remains of their army, easily overwhelming them. They'd taken down the bulk of their enemies forces - but at what cost? Their capital was in ruins. The plains around the city were red with blood and corpses.

With the largest part of their enemies gone, the quickly reclaimed their territory. They came down on Munster, which was left almost defenseless. In the end, Munster was captured and it's king would soon be hanged. A new capital would be built to replace Eblana, and the Battle of Eblana would go down in history. Later on it would become a holiday, similar to how the United States had their 4th of July. Cináed chose to build his new capital from scratch instead of choosing one of the Kingdom's other cities. He picked a spot close to the sea as to be able to communicate with Britannia easily. In a best case scenario, to start a relationship with the Danes. In a worse case scenario, to rally the Briton's against them. He named this city Dubhlinn, meaning 'black pool'. It would take months to build this city to Eblana's glory, but for the time being, a group of overcrowded houses would do. The first thing on the King's to-do list was write up a treaty to Danes that still existed on Britannia, trying to persuade them not to send more troops.

Cináed sighed as his thought process was interrupted by Aedrahn O'Rahilly, his cousin and chosen emissary. He listened as his cousin reported that the peace negotiation with the Danes was successful. For the first time in weeks, Cináed grinned and nodded. The news was spectacular; it gave his people the chance to rebuild everything they lost without having to deal with more war. And in the process, they finally conquered Munster. All seemed to be well.

What Cináed did not know was that the peace was very temporary. A second war with the Danes would be coming during the reign of his son, Padraig.

Afternote: How was that for a first chapter? I wanted to have Dublin as the capital a few centuries earlier, as well as involve them with the whole Danelaw era. I thought if they were a bit stronger, and the Danes had an easier time with Britain, it could work. And don't worry - the Briton's will get their isle back. I'm just working out some difficulties. Would the Briton's be technically Anglo-Saxons now? On another note, what would the people of Éireann be called? Eirish? I'm trying to have them use the Gaelic translations (since Irish Gaelic will prevail without an English takeover), with Eireann = Ireland, Dubhlinn = Dublin, and etc.
 
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