IS IT true that the Battle of Clontarf, fought on Good Friday in 1014, was won by the Irish because all the pubs were closed and they had nothing better to do?
The best informed, and indeed very Nordic, answer to the question posed near the site of the great battle yesterday was "Probably". And that comes from a group who have been commemorating the battle over the last three years.
It is indeed probable that the heathen Vikings may have indulged themselves on Carlsberg while the Irish, under the command of Brian Boru, did not, and had a pray-in before fighting and were better able for the day's outing, according to the experts.
These questions and other serious matters were fielded yesterday at Clontarf by the spokesman for the Dal Cuinn Clan, Eric O Cuinn, who led nine of his tribesmen and followers along the route taken that Good Friday by Boru.
Dressed in the costume of the period and armed to the teeth, Eric had led his colourful band from the Brian Boru pub in Prospect Road, where Boru had camped the night before the battle, through the city centre and out to Clontarf.
Boru may have won the battle at Clontarf, but yesterday Eric was disappointed at the turnout of troops from the Dal Cuinn Clan, which is a living heritage group aimed at raising the awareness of history.
Eric, a descendant of Niall O Cuinn, the last chief of the O Cuinns, said Dublin people are pretty apathetic about their history while they should be celebrating it.
"We want to turn Good Friday into something special; something for the children like they have on the Continent. The adults can look after themselves but we would like to see the involvement of community groups along the route we took today," he said.
He confessed that we were not at the exact scene of the battle, which took place at Ballybough Bridge with armies composed of Irish and Vikings on both sides.
The Dublin Vikings, he said, had asked Boru for help against invading Danes and Swedes and the native Leinster clans. Boru had been fighting, he said, to uphold the Irish tradition and way of life.
Eric could not confirm, however, another bit of revisionism which alleges that King Brian Boru was not praying but playing with a young woman in his tent when hem was slain on the night of the battle by Broudar, a Viking chieftain.
"Although he was 73 at the time and was up to it, there is nothing to suggest that he was misbehaving himself when he died. I'll accept the pub jibe all right, but there is no proof when it comes to that slander," he said.