ir safe
keeping entrusted to nine Danish earls, who had a strong military force
at their orders to guard them.

"The news of this insidious act rapidly fanned the ardour of the Munster
troops to be revenged for the imprisonment of their beloved king.
Kennedy, the Prince of Munster, father of Duncan, was appointed regent,
with ample powers to govern the country in the king's absence. The first
step was to collect an army to cope with the Danes. To assemble a
sufficient body of troops on land was easy; but the great strength of
the northern rovers lay in their swift-sailing ships. 'It must strike
the humblest comprehension with astonishment,' says Marmion, 'that the
Irish, although possessed of an island abounding with forests of the
finest oak, and other suitable materials for ship-building--enjoying
also the most splendid rivers, loughs, and harbours, so admirably
adapted to the accommodation of extensive fleets, should,
notwithstanding, for so many centuries, allow the piratical ravages of
the Danes, and subsequently the more dangerous subversion of their
independence by the Anglo-Normans, without an effort to build a navy
that could cope with those invaders on that element from which they
could alone expect invasion from a foreign foe.' This neglect has also
been noticed by the distinguished Irish writer--Wilde--who, in his
admirably executed _Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Royal Irish
Academy_, observes:--'Little attention has been paid to the subject of
the early naval architecture of this country. So far as we yet know, two
kinds of boats appear to have been in use in very early times in the
British Isles--the canoe and the corragh; the one formed of a single
piece of wood, the other composed of wickerwork, covered with hides.'
Larger vessels there must have been; though, from the length of time
which has since elapsed, we have no traces of them now. Kennedy not only
collected a formidable army by land, but 'he fitted out a fleet of
ships, and manned it with able seamen, that he might make sure of his
revenge, and attack the enemy by sea and land.' The command of the fleet
was conferred on an admiral perfectly skilled in maritime affairs,
Failbhe Fion, King of Desmond.

"When the army of Munster arrived near Armagh, they learnt the prisoners
had been removed thence by Sitric, and placed on board ship. Enraged at
this disappointment, they gave no quarter to the Danes, and advanced
rapidly to Dundalk, where th