Editing County Mayo (section)

===Early Christian period (ca. AD 325 to AD 800)===
[[File:Aghagower St Patrick Statue 2007 08 12.jpg|upright|thumb|left|150px|Statue of St. Patrick Aghagower]]
Christianity came to Ireland around the start of the 5th century. It brought many changes including the introduction of the [[Latin alphabet]]. The tribal '[[tuatha]]' and new Christian religious settlements existed side by side. Sometimes it suited the chieftains to become part of the early Churches, other times they remained as separate entities. St. Patrick (4th century) may have spent time in County Mayo and it is believed that he spent forty days and forty nights on [[Croagh Patrick]] praying for the people of Ireland. From the middle of the 6th-century hundreds of small monastic settlements were established around the county.<ref name="County Mayo: An Outline History">{{cite web |url=http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/Mayo/History/FullHist.htm |title=County Mayo: An Outline History by Bernard O'Hara and Nollaig Ó'Muraíle |access-date=2013-04-26 |archive-date=1 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601224053/http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/Mayo/History/FullHist.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Some examples of well-known early monastic sites in Mayo include [[School of Mayo|Mayo Abbey]], [[Aughagower]], [[Ballintubber]], [[Errew Abbey]], [[Cong Abbey]], [[Killala]], Turlough on the outskirts of Castlebar, and island settlements off the [[Mullet Peninsula]] like the [[Inishkea Islands]], [[Inishglora]] and [[Duvillaun]].

In 795 the first of the [[Viking]] raids took place. The Vikings came from [[Scandinavia]] to raid the monasteries as they were places of wealth with precious metal working taking place in them. Some of the larger ecclesiastical settlements erected [[Irish round tower|round tower]]s to prevent their precious items from being plundered and also to show their status and strength against these pagan raiders from the north. There are round towers at [[Aughagower]], [[Balla, County Mayo|Balla]], [[Killala]], Turlough and Meelick. The Vikings established settlements that later developed into towns (Dublin, Cork, Wexford, Waterford etc.) but none were in County Mayo. Between the reigns of [[Kings of Connacht]] [[Cathal mac Conchobar mac Taidg]] (973–1010) and [[Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair]] (1106–1156), various tribal territories were incorporated into the kingdom of Connacht and ruled by the Siol Muirdaig dynasty, based initially at [[Rathcroghan]] in [[County Roscommon]], and from {{circa}} 1050 at [[Tuam]]. The families of [[O'Malley (surname)|O'Malley]] and [[O'Dowd]] of Mayo served as [[admiral]]s of the [[Naval fleet|fleet]] of [[Connacht]], while families such as O'Lachtnan, [[Mac Fhirbhisigh]], and O'Cleary were ecclesiastical and bardic clans.