Who were mainly Presbyterian.

Mainly Presbyterian middle classes.

And you kind of think this is something where they want the, they want, um, actually they do want power because they've got power.

They've got power to think, and they're thinking, "Well, we have an expression of how this, you know, this place should be run.

We think it should be run like this." And so the Society of, of United Irishmen is founded on very, not very different principles to what it ends up becoming by '98 because there's a core value, um, in the principles still in '98.

But I like to say the problem with 1798 is it's again a conglomeration of various different kind of groupings in various different locales and regions of the country who are all rising up for various different reasons.

Very mobile

... very mobile.

What the Norse saw was an opportunity to profit from the slave trade because they had the ship technology that could bring them further afield and export these slaves further afield for a higher profit.

Slavery was an accepted part of Gaelic life.

The difference is that the Viking mentality was, I could almost say, practically nihilistic.

But it was also eternally optimistic.

They lived for the moment, so to them, if you could fight on your two feet and you didn't want to be a slave and you fought back, well, good power to your elbow.

But if you couldn't withstand them, then you were fair game.

Dr. Gavin Hughes is an expert on this critical episode in the wars between Vikings and Irish.

Some people think that Ogier knew that the army of Cedric was here and went deliberately to engage him.

And this forms the background to Cromwell, who comes to Ireland in 1641 or 1649, eight years later.

Can you give us a wee bit of what's happening in 1641 in Ireland? Because this is the interesting thing.

In 1641, you have Sir Phelan O'Neill, and he is part of a conspiracy, a late comer to this conspiracy, where the Gaelic-Irish lesser gentry, because most of the top gentry, the Easter Pats, have all gone.

They've all gone.

They've almost left the Gaelic-Irish without any kind of leadership at all.

They're in a state of limbo, to be quite honest.

They're looking around for various leaders who they can kind of take.

why would you let your enemies walk away with arms?

Do you know what? I mean,

you wouldn't have thought, really, that somebody like William would have been idolised.

And it's kind of like a bit of a joke, isn't it? This whole cult of William, even down to the fact of his artefacts.

That makes me laugh, because you kind of have this whole kind of thing.

It's almost like, you know, sort of...

This is controversial.

It's almost like the artefacts you get associated with saints.

dying in this battle, so why is he panicking?