History exaggerated the Battle of Clontarf – one of many misconceptions about Vikings

Carrolls Irish Gifts shops are as apt a symbol for contemporary Ireland as anything else

It’s easier than ever to trace your ancestry, using online church records to DNA kits

Centuries-old debate continues as social media analysis used to explore Viking-Irish strife

New self-guided tours take in lives of our chieftains, kings and pirate queens

Malachy Clerkin, Amy Huberman, Una Mullally and more on their fathers as young men

Visit Druid sites, kayak past Viking settlements or see a lamb being born

A cure for leprosy? The Connemarathon? The home of Botox, or Viagra? Birthplace of the MGM lion? Whatever its claim to fame, know your county’s bragging rights

From ‘Dress suitably, and buy a revolver’ and 'A terrible beauty' to 'We all partied'

If you like to commune with the ghosts of the famous in haunting surroundings, Ireland has enough burial places to last you a lifetime

Misfortune for Angie in tennis final sees her devoted husband lose the plot

The landscape may be barren but you’ll never visit a place where Earth feels so alive

Stint promoting famous Clontarf landmark finishes on a real high note for burly busman

Temples of Angkor named world’s top must-see destination in guidebook list of 500

‘In the hotel bar, late in the evening, four middle-aged men cautiously crossed the floor’

Chamber of commerce aims to capitalise on town’s many spiritual associations

Cova Baily in Howth is a dormer bungalow with sweeping views across Dublin Bay

Tourism body says increased air routes are encouraging overseas trips to Ireland

From the scattered remnants, Ireland’s oldest oak trees are being revived as part of a global initiative to propagate the DNA of ancient woodland

Monastic site with Brian Ború links to cost less than €500,000

‘It’s brilliant that American Football can come here . . . but it’s a GAA field and it’s our field’

Parnell Summer School told some of the battlefield violence on the western front regarded as breach of the norms of war

Experts say 5,000-year-old yew found in Welsh churchyard may be UK’s oldest tree

Traditional music, David Gray, viking boat trips and aqua sphering among weekend events

On the Ballina side of the Shannon, but two miles from Killaloe, this renovated and extended house has large rooms, period-style features, a gym and sauna, as well as landscaped gardens with panoramic views

St Columba’s Church, Swords

Two stamps celebrating Ireland’s Viking heritage issued to mark 1014 celebrations

DNA research bolsters the historical record of the Uí Néill clan’s long-lasting primacy in medieval Ireland

Authority is for building up others, never for their diminishment or humiliation

The Vikings are back on our screens and in our galleries but the romantic notions of their wild spirit is a cheerful distortion of their culture

Harpists have had mixed fortunes since their early medieval heyday. Now Cormac de Barra is helping to restore the instrument’s status. As part of his efforts, he tries teaching it to an ‘Irish Times’ journalist

President Michael D Higgins also scheduled to attend memorial event

Calls made in Seanad for debate on Battle of Clontarf and on possibility of rejoining Commonwealth

Gandelows built as part of Limerick City of Culture project

The Vikings were adept at choosing sites for their towns, and with its confluence of rivers, strategic political position and fertile hinterland, Dublin offered huge potential

Stories about the Vikings, including this half-dozen, have been exaggerated so much that they wouldn’t recognise themselves

For generations of Irish people he is the hero who secured the country’s freedom. The truth is more complicated.