The idea for Wolves of the Irish Sea occurred to me whilst watching both Vikings and The Last Kingdom, wildly popular television shows. I was extremely aware, through my reading and tales from older folk I knew in Meath, of Ireland in the 9th and 10th centuries, and I felt that what was occurring simultaneously in Ireland and Scotland, as depicted in the plots of those wonderful shows, had been abandoned. What occurred in the early Middle Ages effectively forged Britain and Ireland into what they are now, and the connotations of that period echo into today. The Saxon and Danish perspective has been done to death in a historical fiction context, but Ireland and Scotland had been abandoned. Wolves of the Irish Sea, I hope, will rectify this somewhat. I have used the same sources to create my picture, and through the eyes of my five main characters, I hope the reader can catch a glimpse of the economics and politics of the era. I was as chronologically accurate as I could be. In the same way we all know the iceberg defeated the Titanic, one can’t take any liberties with historical events. However, as a work of historical fiction, I could use my discretion to add characters and alternate between Irish, Norse, and Anglicised place names to make them as computable as possible. With some names, I just picked what I thought was the coolest one. I am exploring history, but I am not here to be your teacher either.

I am not here to teach a history lesson per se, and I am sure that some of the PhD guys will argue for different versions of events, but this is my best interpretation of how, why, and when the main geopolitical events of the Irish Sea in the 9th and 10th centuries occurred. I want the reader, especially of Scottish, Irish, and Norse-Gael descent, to feel a sense of pride and a connection to their ancestors of the past. I hope that Wolves of the Irish Sea is perceived as a tale of hope; that when times are darkest in the Celtic world, great leaders emerge. But I also want to convey the message that when we are divided as a people, we are vulnerable to the mercies of ferocious enemies. In the 9th century, it was Vikings; in the 21st century, Ireland and Scotland face hedge funds, corrupt politics, and the utter hegemony of the elite. Although a thousand years apart, each of those foes of Ireland and Scotland has invaded, demanded tribute, and had no qualms about inflicting suffering for gain upon the peoples of the Irish Sea.