June 30, 2003
No axe to grind
When I was in school, I was taught that the Vikings introduced coinage, the fork and the comb to the native Irish, who hitherto were presumably wandering around looking like a bunch of freckle-faced Michael Bolton lookalikes, writing IOUs and eating with their fingers. For some reason, the Vikings weren't popular at first - it had something to do with the fact that they could never sail past a monastery they couldn't desecrate (Mind you, if they arrived at Dun Laoghaire today offering to lay waste to the Church, they might get a warmer welcome. But I digress).
In Athlone this week, the town will hold a Viking festival which will commemorate the memory of Olaf Scabbyhead, a Viking warrior who plundered along the Shannon a thousand years ago. The festival will also include events in Clonmacnoise (downstream of Athlone) which survived a number of Viking attacks. It's great that we Irish can let bygones be bygones and celebrate the memory and contribution of our former invaders. No doubt we can look forward to a joyful commemoration of Cromwell's tour of Ireland in around 2603. I don't know much about Olaf, but I'm guessing he wasn't the one who introduced the comb.
Posted by Monasette at June 30, 2003 10:20 PM