Dublin becomes Norman

1168

Diarmait Mac Murchada, the exiled king of Leinster, used Norman mercenaries from Wales under Richard de Clare to retake his throne. By this year the Normans effectively controlled Dublin, touching off eight centuries of English involvement in Ireland. The Normans fortified Dublin with stone walls and a castle, transforming a Viking trading town into the administrative center of an Anglo-Norman colony that would slowly expand across the eastern half of the island.