The Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries established Dyflin (Dublin) and Jórvik (York) as colonial centres and the Irish Sea became a maritime thoroughfare between the two in addition to playing a key navigation route around the islands’ shores.…

Looking across the Irish Sea to Snowdonia in Wales on a bright snowclad morning is a disconcerting experience. From Wicklow, Wexford and even parts of Dublin it seems as though you could walk across to the Welsh coastline, and there are some…