In the year 684, Egfrid, the Saxon King of Northumberland, sent an army to Ireland, which spared neither churches nor monasteries, and carried off a great number of the inhabitants as slaves.

Bede denounces and laments this barbarous invasion, attributing the defeat and death of King Egfrid, which took place in the following year, to the vengeance of heaven.[193] St.Adamnan was sent to Northumbria, after the death of this prince, to obtain the release of the captives.

His mission was successful, and he was honoured there as the worker of many miracles.
The generosity of Finnachta failed in settling the vexed question of tribute.

Comgal, who died in 708, ravaged Leinster as fiercely as his predecessors, and Fearghal, his successor, invaded it "five times in one year." Three wonderful showers are said to have fallen in the eighth year of his reign (A.D.716 according to the Four Masters)--a shower of silver, a shower of honey, and a shower of blood.

These were, of course, considered portents of the awful Danish invasions.