The Fires of Freedom

The Fires of Freedom
by Dan McCollum
24 February 2002

"I shall take the sword/
To those of disbelief/
String up they who utter words/
of the false prophets/
And so I shall sail to heaven/
riding a ship of bone/
upon a sea of blood"
--Ragnar VII
*Ragnar VII* by Don Cam O'Doul
Act 3 Scene IX
On a cold January morning in the year SE 403 [1175 CE] near the forests of Birnamwood in the Earldom of Scotland, the fate of the ailing Kingdom of Dublin was sealed. This was not the day of a great battle, except in spirit, it was not an assassination, except of character, and for some it was an act of pure suicide. It is said that when their church was set afire, the Cennedites inside bowed their heads and began to sing: sing songs of freedom. These songs soon began to soar across the land.

Before the ruins of the church had even ceased to smolder, word began to spread across the land, and soon the entire Kingdom began to explode. Two weeks and one day later a Cennedite follower in the Earldom of Ulster assassinated the Thane of Ragnarford and his son before being hacked down by the thane’s guards. In the city of Limerick the Christian population rose up against the Nordic government and Submissive population and rioted for five days until most of the city was laid to ruin. In Dublin a mob attacked the local prison, overcame the guards, and freed several prominent prisoners.

Ragnar VII, King of Dublin, was now faced with a situation that was quickly growing out of control, and he had no one but himself to blame. A blunt and pious ruler, who had grown paranoid after his victory in the Seven Years War and the subsequent revolts, Ragnar badly persecuted the Christians during the early years of his reign. Furthermore, his heavy taxation of the merchant class had nearly bankrupted the Kingdom's main source of income and left him with a small, badly equipped and unpaid army to deal with the crisis.

Despite this, the King's reaction was surprisingly swift. Sending a delegation to the powerful Deputy Aethelred II of England, he was able to raise a loan of money as well as a small force in order to put down the rebels. He then acted to suppress the growing rebellion as best as he could, crushing resistance wherever he found it. Ragnar also had the help from the remnants of the old Gaelic aristocracy who had converted to Submission to retain power and who rightly feared for their lives at the hands of the growing rebellion.

It is important to note that, although the most striking examples of the early rebellion took place in the cities, the Crusader movement had its greatest support base in the country, and it could be argued that it was here that the most damage was done.

In March of 404 a group of rowdy English soldiers billeted in a town in Leinster got into a fight with a local man over his wife. A struggle ensued which left the man dead; the soldiers then went on to take advantage of his wife. She is said to have killed herself the next day. The enraged peasantry formed a mob and attacked these soldiers as well as the noble family which dared to house them, killing them to the man and leaving the bodies hanging in the town square. Incidents such as this greatly depleted the already shrinking Nordic nobility in the Kingdom of Dublin, as well as disrupting land-based trade, and the supply lines which helped to keep the cities fed.

In 405, after nearly two years of barely staved off insurrection and outright anarchy, the Rebellion began to move into its second phase. It was in that year that Hugh O'Sullivan and his son Patrick began to launch their attacks deep into the heart of the Kingdom. Having recently consolidated their power over the clan and its diverse holdings in the Earldom of Munster, they seemed to have wanted to prove their right to lead by attacking the hated Submissives who had so recently gone into disorder. It is hard to say if the O'Sullivan's attacks were initially meant to gain territory for the clan, or simply to gain wealth. Whatever the initial purpose, we can safely assume that they had no intention of being the catalyst that would unify the rebelling forces of Ireland under a single banner.

April 16th, 405 has been long considered to be the beginning of the end for the Irish Revolt. It was on this day that the forces of the O'Sullivans arrived at the city of Limerick at the mouth of the river Shannon, to have the gates thrust open and a representative of the people pledging fealty to the Free Irish lord.

Greatly intrigued by this turn of events, Hugh O'Sullivan hesitantly agreed and soon gained similar pledges from several other cities in the region. With a large force he marched North into Ulster and lay seige to Ragnarford, the most populous city in the County. In early 406 the city fell to the forces of the Free Irish lord. Sadly, several days before the capture, a stray arrow struck Hugh O'Sullivan in the eye and killed him instantly.

Although the actual motives of Hugh O'Sullivan can be left up to speculation, his son is a much more easily read character. A born administrator, warrior and leader, he was both a shrewd politician and a figure of romantic fixation. It is said that upon assuming the throne of the Kingdom of Ireland, he wept every night for the Irish who had died during the Dark Years of the reign of Ragnar VII.

With this charismatic new leader at their head, the Christian rebels began to consolidate their gains. He met with, and gained the support of, the Cennedite Crusader movement, as well as many of the local clan leaders who were opposed to the rule of Dublin. Ragnar VII, for his part, was pleased to finally have a distinct target to attack and unleash the remains of his armies upon, rather than putting down a series of scattered revolts. Scavenging every gold piece that remained in the Kingdom's name, he fielded one last army and set out to meet Patrick O'Sullivan on the field of battle.

On May 24th, 407 the forces of Patrick O'Sullivan and Ragnar VII met outside the strong walls of Dublin on the field of Clontarf. The King attacked mercilessly and spurred his troops on with great personal bravery, but in the end it was too little too late. The Kingdom of Dublin had been in decline since being torn asunder by the Seven Years War, so that the Battle of Clontarf was no more than a long, bloody, epilogue to a story already told. Late in the day, as the sun was setting, Ragnar fell and was seized by several Irish warriors who hacked and hewed his body apart, and his mercenaries and other soldiers fled the battlefield in panic. On the 25th, the remains of the King were collected, and given a proper Nordic burial by the remains of his household. The long history of the Kingdom of Dublin had come to an end.

On December 25th, 407 Patrick O’Sullivan came to Tara and was declared High King of Ireland. Although it would be several years before he would be able to claim this title in actuality and not just name, after putting down a revolt by in Wales, as well as bringing the rest of the Free Irish Clans under his control, for the first time in centuries, Ireland was free of the Northmen.

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