Fingal: History
=== Terminology and etymology ===
The name "Fingal" derives from the medieval territory of Fine Gall (tribe or territory of foreigners), the Viking settlement north of Dublin. The Vikings referred to the hinterland of Dublin as Dyflinarskiri.
In Ireland, the usage of the word county nearly always comes before rather than after the county name; thus "County Clare" in Ireland as opposed to "Clare County" in Michigan, US. In the case of those counties created after 1994, they often drop the word county entirely, or use it after the name; internet search engines show many more uses (on Irish sites) of "Fingal" than of either "County Fingal" or "Fingal County". The local authority uses all three forms.
Fingallian is an extinct language, a hybrid of Old and Middle English and Old Norse, with Leinster Irish influences. It was spoken by the people of Fingal until the mid-19th century.
Fingal is within the part of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, established in 2015, one of three such regional assemblies in the state. Within that, it is part of the Dublin strategic planning area.
In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy identified Eblana (Dublin) as the capital of a people called the Eblani. In later centuries the territory north of the river Liffey was known as Mide or Midhe, i.e. "the Kingdom of Meath" (that to the south was known as Coigh Cuolan or Cualan). The west of this area was known as Teffia, and the east as Bregia (Latinised from Gaelic Magh Breagh, "the great plain of Meath"). Bregia comprised five Gaelic triocha-cheds (equivalent to cantreds) or the later baronies, and was ruled by the king at Tara. These princes, and various Gaelic chieftains, held sway over the area until the coming of the Vikings in the 8th century.
By 841 AD a Scandinavian settlement had been established at Dublin; this was abandoned in 902, re-established in 917, and developed thereafter. It was so established by the 11th century that it was regarded even amongst the surrounding native Gaelic population as a minor kingdom ruled by Hiberno-Norse kings. The Norse Kingdom of Dublin stretched, at its greatest, from Drogheda to Arklow, and while mostly a thin strip of coastal land, from the Irish Sea westwards as far as Leixlip in the central part.
After the Battle of Clontarf, when High King Brian Boru curtailed the power of the Vikings in Ireland, the Norse-Irish Kingdom of Dublin continued, with its own bishop, part of the Westminster hierarchy rather than the Irish, though it gradually came under the influence of the Kings of Leinster. Diarmait Mac Murchada established himself there before his expulsion by the High King in 1166, a series of events that led to the area being invaded in the late 12th century, by the Cambro-Normans. This was to form part of the heartland of the area known as The Pale during the successive periods of rule by Anglo-Norman and the later kings of England. …