In the 12 th century, the Normans invaded Ireland, beginning the reign of the English in Ireland. In the 9 th century, the Vikings began their invasion of Ireland, intermingling with the now occupied Irish, until they were defeated and essentially driven out of Ireland by Brian Boru, famed Irish King, in 1014. to 16 th century A.C.E., the people who occupied Ireland, known as the Celts, maintained an agrarian lifestyle frequently interrupted by both local skirmishes and international warfare. In the Annals of Ulster, a historic text that covers the operation of the country of Ireland from Saint Patrick’s arrival in the mid-5 th century A.C.E. Ireland is an old country, settled thousands of years ago and becoming a bastion of Christianity in the formerly pagan Europe. The myth of the violent Irish hooligan, perpetuated through popular culture representations authored, most frequently, by their British rulers, hinges on the Shillelagh, a weapon that is as ancient and enigmatic as Ireland itself. "But Kelly himself, his arms akimbo stood calmly over his enemy." From The Party Fight and Funeral (Carleton's Irish Peasantry by William Carleton, George Routledge & Co, 1854)