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Dublin, Modern day Dublin[1]

It was snowing and cold, as it usually always was. There was a muffled thump of a weight landing on the cold ground indicative of the frost conditions for days past.

“Is buide lemm frit.[2]” Words followed by a foggy cloud.

The speaker's travels were long but an everlasting experience but the years away from his kingdom would be missed.

The clan fort could be seen from the small harbour and towards it, the traveller would start.

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The Unification Period | Ríain Ó Ferghus - published 2003
Prologue


The year 946 AD, was a tumultuous time for the land of Éire and her people from prince to peasant.

Ireland Map with the River Cities.png

The island was a mass, frankly more a mess, of keeps, chiefs, lords and ‘kings’. The required cognitive function required to make sense of the numerous connections is mythic in nature and to look at a detailed map of the time down to each ‘king’ would do little to alleviate the gained bafflement.

Thankfully of all these polities, independent or not, in the early 10th-Century we only need to consider the eight petty kingdoms, the three Viking settlements and the powerful Dál gCais lords of Mumhain that, together, would be the greatest secular political actors on the island for most of the century interkingdom politics aside.

The newly established Northern Uí Neill Kingdom of Ulaid was the major power in the north with the Kingdom of Airgialla to its south both having absorbed parts of the old Kingdom of Ulaid following Clontarf[3].

The Kingdom of Connacht was the major power on the western coast of the island with the oftentimes vassal Uí Briúin Bréifne Kings of Bréifne ruling the lands just north and west of it.

The southernmost lands were divided in two with the overall the leader of the native Irish in Munster being the Rí ruirech of Munster with his capital in Corcaigh. His authority waned severely the further north one travelled with various vassal Rí to both the northwest and northeast acting as independent kings in all but name. The strongest of these would be the Ua Liathain kings in the northeast and the Dál gCais lords of Tuadhmhumhain.

The Gaels of the eastern lands on the island were loyal to the ancient fifth of Mide and the post-Clontarf kingdoms of Southern Uí Néill Kingdom of Laigin or the former Norseman now Gaelic Kingdom of Dubh Linn.

The lost Viking kingdom of Dyflin was one of two missing Viking kingdoms of 10th Century post-Clontarf Ireland the other being Corcaigh. The remaining Viking settlements of Luimneach, Veðrafjǫrðr and Veisafjǫrðr still wielded great influence and were a scourge for all the peoples of the southern coasts. It must be noted though, that all three settlements seemed to be trending toward an increase of relations and interactions with the natives to an increasingly larger degree than with their Scandinavian homelands.

The Kingdom of Dubh Linn - our obvious focus for this period - was one of the economically stronger on the island. Controlling two major sites, Tara holding a special significance for the Gaelic peoples and the town of Dublin being one of the bigger if not the biggest on the island their economic strength was often translated into military capacity.

It was into this Kingdom of Dubh Linn that on the 14th of May 918 AD that Daniél mac Diarmaid Knight was born. Born to the Rí ruirech Diarmad of said kingdom, the chief of the Clan Knight.

This new flaith[4] and future Rí was to set the stones for the building of a great kingdom. He would be the first Fíor Rí of Ireland, the original Kingdom of the West.

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Athair an Stáit | Radiant Publishing - 1997
An Turas Fada


Daniél Knight from birth was somewhat of an oddity on the island. The name Daniél was rare within Gaelic culture but not unknown, though all annals lack the name within what we have of the clan’s pre-Clontarf history raising the question of its choice.

The flaith was also, from birth, his father’s heir. Such a thing ordinarily would only be possibly confirmed in his majority in the absence of an incumbent tánaiste[5] with a vote within his clan gelfine with an outcome not even assured to favour the past chief’s progeny.

The complete lack of voting clansmen to make up a gelfine and men to be voted on within the righdamhna within both three or seven generations of a common ancestor of the current generation was astounding, especially the latter generational stipulation, which was designed to always ensure the existence of the assembly.

The lack of men for the role could be blamed on Battle of Clontarf which saw the utter decimation of the Knight clan along with several other Irish families, all mostly along the east coast of the island.

The prince would be blissfully unaware of this for some years, though this absence of competing branches of the same family would be a major boon to his strength and power within and outside of his future kingdom.

From the few accounts we have from his early life - usually, from sponsored family histories - he was known as quite a lively and clever boy, a learning swordsman and horseman being noted as an especially quick learner.

He would grow into a strong, handsome, capable and dashing adult and a capable warrior. Such titles and adjectives while expected for a great and renowned king but may still have an amount of truth in them.

By the age of sixteen though whatever few references found in various all-island histories and records would dry up. Even mentions Knight family histories would in size and frequency and often to stating what would be annual affairs of his life such as his birthdays.

It is at this point an agreement is reached by historians that he, at the seeming behest of his father, was sent as a diplomatic envoy to the Saxons across the Muir Éireann. Why he would send his only son is unknown.

He would begin to appear in Anglo-Saxon court records of King Æthelstan until being noted in 936 as leaving in the entourage of Louis Transmarine, who was being called back to France by Hugh the Great to be crowned Louis IV, whatever diplomatic mission he seemed to have been sent for ending most likely with the worsening health and coming death of Æthelstan in 939.

French court rolls would have him serving as an aide of sorts to the French king but Knight family histories would also list him as both a friend and advisor to King Louis. Either position would enable him to learn about and participate in both continental intrigue and warfare.

In the French court, Daniél would stay for three years before leaving the young kings court in the middle of the events that would follow the battle of Andernach officially to begin a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

He would travel to Rome to meet His Holiness Pope Stephen VIII. He would arrive there in 940 and seek the blessing of the Pope, offering gifts in return, though what amount of wealth an Irish princeling may have would be questionable. It is possible though that along with silver, slaves may have been offered as well. This would be highly unlikely considering both the receiver of these gifts along with the cost of feeding said slaves for any such journey.

Roman sources say Stephen took a great liking to Daniél’s displayed piety and devotion towards the faith. Praising him to all in attendance, Pope Stephen would utter “Beatus hoc Hiberni Rex.[6]” Obviously, Daniél was not the king of his people nor the Irish, yet, but this referral to Daniél as the king of the Irish would be one of future contention as a simple mistake or true Papal approval, though it was frankly a simple communication error.

He would spend two months in Rome before taking and undertaking of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This path would take him through Konstantinopolis, at the time the city of man’s desire. Journeying further to the imperial palace would take him into the court of Emperor Constantine VII.

As a minor noble from a poor far away land Daniél may have not even been invited to stay in the palace for his stay but Imperial scribes would record that by pure chance he would somehow come to the notice of the Emperor himself who would take a liking to him and bring him into his favour. Most scholars think that the only reason Constantine even noticed and favoured this poor foreigner was that he was ‘bored’. Being more figurehead than emperor most of the ruling would be done by his father-in-law and co-Emperor, Romanos Lekapenos.

Daniél’s much-touted aura of pride and surety would have also been a point of interest for the emperor - said surety being something that Constantine lacked with a constant fear of usurpation by the Lekapenos.

Constantine would develop a form of respect for the flaith even offering him the rank of droungarokomēs of an Imperial squadron, which would be accepted and put on hold Daniél’s plans for pilgrimage.

This squadron would participate as part of the larger naval defence during the Siege of Konstantinopolis by the Rus. The battle would see a repulsion of Rus’ naval forces and a later battle combined with the army that would see them being almost completely wiped out.

Daniél would stay in Konstantinopolis until the death of Romanos in August 941. This would trigger an attempted coup by his two sons Stephen and Constantine against Constantine - confusing, yes I know - which would be stopped by the people of Konstantinopolis.

Stephen would be mauled by the crowd while Constantine would be captured, stripped of any Imperial titles and sent to the Prince’s Islands as a monk where he would die in 982.

Daniél wishing to complete his pilgrimage would resign his post in the midst of the coup fall-out possibly also wanting to escape the spectre imperial politics and intrigues. News would reach Konstantinopolis from his ailing father requesting his return.

He would turn back and arrive in Ireland in late 942 and within two weeks his father would be dead and Daniél would have an unopposed ascension to the ‘throne’.

In the epics of his life, this period would be known as the An Turas Fada.[7] It is the agreed consensus of most historians that this 8-year odyssey would be a major establishing factor in the future king’s fortune. The lessons and experience gained from the various kingdoms and lands would be the wellspring of many an innovation and scheme birth forth from the mind of Daniél that would be used to secure his future kingdom and its people.

Said kingdom though would need to be established first…

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[1]. This was a change of an earlier word. I kept it because it sounded funny.

[2]. Thank you in Old Irish.

[3]. ITTL, Clontarf isn't fought by Brian in 50-ish years. It was fought before the story's start as a part of the POD, which I shall reveal slowly. Just know this Battle of Clontarf was larger and deadlier.

[4]. Prince

[5]. Deputy, second-in-command, heir-presumptive.

[6]. Literally, Blessed this King of the Irish. Stephen meant this Irish king instead.

[7]. The Long Journey.

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Hey everyone, so I decided to write a story. It took me a great effort but I liked the way it turned out and I feel proud of myself. Towards the end, it did seem kind of essay-like in its wording which is a little sucky, overall though I must pat myself on the back.

This is a story about a united Ireland as you can tell by the title or maybe not. It takes place about 20 years from a POD that kinda happened OTL but didn't. I must say though when originally writing the POD was something I just made up. So a happy accident.

I won't go into detail about said POD because I would like to do a section/post about that sometime eventually. If anyone can guess it they get a prize (the prize is a cookie). It has to do with Dublin though it affects the whole island.

The Knights don't exist or at least they aren't prominent as an Irish clan in OTL, I just made them up as I stuck with the name from CK2 character customizer. The setup on the map and in the story is as a result of the POD and simplification for ease of understanding for me and... mainly for me.

As a tidbit of information, I shall also be writing through books along with narrative and pops into the future on the internet and through other mediums so if you don't like the book format don't despair.

TL;DR: This is my story, hope you like it, if you have any questions at all please ask.
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