[119] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 1062. Cf. _Co dunad na Piscarcarla in Cath Ruis na Rig_ (ed. Hogan) where _Piscarcarla_ corresponds to the O.N. _fiskikari_, “a fisherman.”
The word _Trapcharla_ (“na _Trapcharla_”) also occurs in the _Book of Ballymote_ as the name of a people who fought at Troy. It has been suggested that the term was generally used during the ninth and tenth centuries of a Norse colony in Co. Limerick, which colony would acquire a legendary character after the Norsemen had been driven out of Ireland, and would figure, like the Lochlannaigh or Norsemen, in Middle-Irish stories and poems.
See _Miscellany presented to Kuno Meyer_, pp. 293, 370.
[121] _Heimskringla: Saga Óláfs hins helga_, chs. 88, 10.
When the Scandinavians had firmly established themselves on the Irish coasts they developed trade to a considerable extent, not only by bringing Ireland into communication with their new settlements in England, but also by opening up commerce with Iceland and Scandinavia, and even with Russia and the East.[122] Before A.D. 900 at all events, they had been accustomed to visit France from Ireland, and had trafficked with merchants there, using a certain vessel called the ‘Epscop’[123] for measuring their wine. That this branch of their trade was in a flourishing condition in the latter half of the tenth century may be inferred from a contemporary poem in which Brian Borumha is said to have exacted as tribute one hundred and fifty vats of wine from the Norsemen of Dublin, and a barrel of red wine every day from the Limerick settlers.[124]
The Scandinavians also made marked advances on the old methods of trading by building their forts near the large harbours and carrying on from there a continuous overseas commerce.[125] Previous to this foreign merchants[126] who visited Ireland used to exchange their goods for home produce at the numerous _oenachs_ or fairs held at certain intervals all over the country. These _oenachs_ continued to be celebrated during the Viking period, but it was in the seaport towns, Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Wexford, and Waterford, that the most important trade was centred. Dublin, owing to its splendid position, half way between the Continent and the Scandinavian settlements in Scotland and Iceland, and within easy distance of England, became one of the wealthiest towns in the West. One Irish chronicler gives a glowing account of the treasures carried off from there by the Irish after the battle of Gleann Máma (A.D. 1000):