Bloodmoon

by Peter Tremayne

  Ecgfrith’s attempt to invade Ireland was made by landing on the coastal territory of Magh Breagh (Brega, south of Tara), part of the High King’s southern Uí Néill lands. The Irish annals recorded: ‘The devastation of Magh Breagh, both churches and territories, by the Saxons, in the month of June precisely; and they carried off with them many hostages from every place which they left, throughout Magh Breagh, together with many other spoils, and afterwards went to their ships.’

  The monk and historian the Venerable Bede (d. AD 735) was among the Anglo-Saxons outraged by Ecgfrith’s attempted invasion against ‘a harmless race that had always been most friendly to the English’.