Battle of Clontarf

April 23, 1014

The aging Irish high king Brian Boru, said to have prayed for victory under a linen awning, watched his army crush a Viking-Leinster coalition on a Dublin beach on Good Friday. Brian was killed in his tent by a fleeing Norseman. Ireland's unity died with him that morning. The Norse of Dublin, though defeated, remained in the city as merchants and gradually assimilated into Irish society.