<Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> The wind is fierce tonight it tosses the sea's white mane I do not fear the coursing of a quiet sea by the fierce warriors of Lothlend </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3">--Anonymous poem Is acher in gaíth in - nocht...</Td> </Tr> <P> The first recorded Viking raid in Irish history occurred in AD 795 when Vikings, possibly from Norway looted the island of Lambay . This was followed by a raid on the coast of Brega in 798, and raids on the coast of Connacht in 807 . These early Viking raids were generally small in scale and quick . </P> <P> These early raids interrupted the golden age of Christian Irish culture and marked the beginning of two hundred years of intermittent warfare, with waves of Viking raiders plundering monasteries and towns throughout Ireland . Most of the early raiders came from the fjords of western Norway . They are believed to have sailed first to Shetland, then south to Orkney . The Vikings would have then sailed down the Atlantic coast of Scotland, and then over to Ireland . During these early raids the Vikings also travelled to the west coast of Ireland to the Skellig Islands located off the coast of County Kerry . The early raids on Ireland seem to have been aristocratic free enterprise, and named leaders appear in the Irish annals: Saxolb (Soxulfr) in 837, Turges (Þurgestr) in 845, Agonn (Hákon) in 847 . </P>

Where did the vikings first land in ireland