https___100objects.ie_slave-chain__lang_ga_1.xml
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READ MORE Slave Chain Late-Ninth or Early-Tenth Century The clink of this iron chain is a dark note that sounds through much of Irish history, from St Patrick to twentieth-century institutions of incarceration. It is the sound of slavery. It was found, along with a human skull, iron spearhead and bronze pin, near Ardakillen crannóg, Co. Roscommon. Its function was brutally plain: to turn people into moveable property. It is a remnant of a trade that sold Irish slaves to places as far apart as Iceland and the Arab world. The Old Norse word for a slave, ‘thræll’, is still part of our language, as thrall; but slavery had a long and disreputable history in Ireland before the Vikings. St Patrick was captured as a slave, and one of the first written documents in Irish history is his Letter to Coroticus, denouncing a British chieftain who had enslaved some members of his Christian flock. Bondage remained a feature of later Irish society: there are records in the annals of families selling children in times of need. In the ninth century, Viking Dublin had emerged as a major slaving centre, from which captives, not merely from the rest of Ireland but also from Britain, were traded. The slave trade retained a significant role in the city’s commerce until the twelfth century. (In a foretaste of nineteenth-century imperial rhetoric, the suppression of the slave trade was one excuse for the imposition of English overlordship in Ireland. The Anglo-Normans did in fact ban the use of Christian slaves; a progressive move that took several hundred years to disseminate across the rest of the European continent.) Most slaves are anonymous, but we have the names of a few Irish people enslaved by Vikings. The ‘Life’ of St Findan (or Fintan), a Leinster monk who died in Switzerland in 878, records the capture of his sister by Vikings. When Findan seeks to ransom her, he himself is captured. He is sold in succession to four different masters before he escapes. There is specific mention of the enslaved Findan being bound in chains. The Icelandic Laxdæla saga contains the story of Melkorka (probably Máel Curcaig), the daughter of an Irish king, who is captured in a raid when she is just fifteen and sold in a slave market in Norway to ‘Gilli the Russian’. She is then bought by a Viking called Höskuldr for ‘three silver pieces’. He takes her to Iceland, where she bears him a son, Oláfr, whom she teaches to speak Irish. She somehow retains a defiant personality: when Höskuldr’s wife contemptuously flings stockings at her head, Melkorka responds by giving her a bloody nose. Few Irish slaves were the children of kings, and few would have survived such defiance. In the saga, Melkorka pretends for years to be deaf and dumb. Slaves, indeed, seldom get to speak or to leave the records of their own voices. The only sound they leave behind is the dull clank of a chain.
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Léigh Níos Mó Slabhra Sclábhaí Deireadh an naoú haois nó tús an deichiú haois Slabhra sclábhaí, deireadh an naoú haois nó tús an deichiú haois Is ionann gligeáil an tslabhra iarainn seo agus nóta gruama atá le cloisteáil ar fud cuid mhór de stair na hÉireann, ó aimsir N Pádraig go dtí institiúidí cuibhrithe san fhichiú haois. Fuaim na sclábhaíochta atá ann. Aimsíodh an slabhra, agus blaosc duine, ceann sleá agus pionna cré-umha in éineacht leis, gar do chrannóg Ard an Choillín, Co. Ros Comáin. Is léir an fheidhm bhrúidiúil a bhí aige: maoin shochorraithe a dhéanamh de dhaoine. Is iarsma é de thrádáil trína ndearnadh sclábhaithe Éireannacha le háiteanna chomh fada óna chéile agus an Íoslainn agus an Domhan Arabach. Tá an focal ar sclábhaí sa tSean-Lochlainnis, is é sin, ‘thræll’, ann i gcónaí mar ‘tráill’; ach baineann stair fhada shuarach leis an sclábhaíocht in Éirinn roimh aimsir na Lochlannach. Gabhadh N Pádraig mar sclábhaí agus, i measc na gcéad doiciméid i scríbhinn i stair na hÉireann áirítear Litir N Pádraig chuig Coroticus ina gcáineann sé taoiseach Briotanach a raibh cuid dá phobal Críostaí glactha mar sclábhaithe aige. Bhí an daoirse ann fós mar ghné de shochaí na hÉireann ina dhiaidh sin: tá taifid ann sna hanála a bhaineann le teaghlaigh a dhíol leanaí in am an ghátair. Sa naoú haois, le linn aimsir na Lochlannach, tháinig Baile Átha Cliath chun cinn mar mhórionad do thrádáil sclábhaithe ní hamháin as Éirinn ina hiomláine ach as an mBreatain freisin. Bhí ról suntasach ag trádáil na sclábhaithe i gcúrsaí tráchtála na cathrach go dtí an dóú haois déag. (Mar réamhbhlaiseadh ar reitric impiriúil an naoú haois déag, baineadh úsáid as cosc na sclábhaíochta mar leithscéal i leith Ardtiarnas Shasana a fhorchur in Éirinn. Le fírinne, chuir na hAngla- Normannaigh cosc ar úsáid sclábhaithe Críostaí; ba bheart forásach é sin a thóg roinnt céadta bliain lena leathnú chuig an gcuid eile de mhór-roinn na hEorpa.) Daoine anaithnide is ea iad an chuid is mó sclábhaithe ach tá ainmneacha againn le haghaidh líon áirithe Éireannach ar ghlac na Lochlannaigh mar sclábhaithe iad. In ‘Beatha’ Naomh Fionntain, a bhí ina mhanach Laighneach agus a fuair bás san Eilvéis sa bhliain 878, tá taifead le fáil ar ghabháil a dheirféar ag na Lochlannaigh. Nuair a d’fhéach Fionntain lena fuascailt gabhadh eisean freisin. Díoladh é ceithre huaire i ndiaidh a chéile le máistrí éagsúla sular éalaigh sé. Tá tagairt shonrach ann d’Fhionntain agus é ina sclábhaí cuibhrithe. Sa sága Íoslannach dar teideal Laxdæla, faightear scéal Melkorka (Máel Curcaig, is dócha), iníon rí Éireannaigh a gabhadh le linn ruathair nuair nach raibh sí ach cúig bliana déag d’aois agus a díoladh i margadh sclábhaithe san Iorua le ‘Gilli an Rúiseach’. Cheannaigh Lochlannach darb ainm Höskuldr í ansin ar ‘trí phíosa airgid’. Tugann sé go dtí an Íoslainn í áit a raibh mac aici leis, Oláfr, agus múineann sí Gaeilge dó. Ar bhealach éigin, coimeádann sí pearsantacht dhúshlánach: nuair a chaitheann banchéile Höskuldr stocaí uirthi go drochmheasúil, thug Melkorka greadadh di. Is beag an líon sclábhaithe Éireannacha a bhí ina leanaí de chuid ríthe agus is beag an líon díobh a mhairfeadh tar éis dúshlán den sórt sin a thabhairt. Sa sága sin, lig Melkorka uirthi féin, ar feadh na mblianta, go raibh sí bodhar agus balbh. Dáiríre, is annamh a fuair sclábhaithe deis labhartha nó deis chun taifead dá nglórtha féin a dhéanamh. Is é atá san aon fhuaim amháin a d’fhág siad ina ndiaidh ná gliúscarnach fann slabhra.