[Cuchulain]

You are partly correct. The cities of Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Limerick and Cork were original Viking settlements. The first recorded raid by Vikings in Ireland occured in 795 and for the next 200+ years they occupied parts of Ireland and did in some cases assimilate with the Irish. It is actually a fascinating period in Ireland. After 200 years of conflict, Brian Boru united the Irish for a final battle that virtually ended the Viking age in Ireland in the year of 1014.

[WesternCulture]

There’s even more to be said.

If you really have a death wish, attack Sweden.

You think your nation could stand up to the toughest soldiers on Earth?

Here are the settings, you will fail big time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nKco02uBDA

[muawiyah]

Whereupon they became "the blond component" ~ note ~ by that time the Irish and Norse had already been mixing it up in the Highlands in former Alba, now Scotland ~ and Scotia became Ir-land (or Land of Ir, one of the founders from Galicia ~ NW Spain, formerly from the Danube/Black Sea confluence).

That mixing was a two way street. The formerly all-blond folks from Freisland and their cousins in what is now Sweden, picked up some authentic red-heads.

You could do that a lot back in the days when there were far fewer people around to bother you.