Warfare and Weapons Few examples of weapons exist from our area and period, the Romano British and the Irish were largely Christian during our period and as such did not bury the dead with grave goods. The Germanics on the east coast were pagan and left examples of arms and armour in their graves. The fighting style of the Deisi is purely speculative, I have based it on later 8th and 9th century Irish fighting styles and from "almost" contemporary archaeological finds from Ireland. Did they maintain Irish fighting styles into the 5th century? The answer is nobody knows. We have a find from our period from Cogyan Camp of a dagger, which bears some strong resemblances to contemporary Irish short swords, so possibly is the best answer. Irish warfare and to some extent Romano British warfare was largely the preserve of the nobility. They were trained from a young age to be warriors using a variety of weapons. Battle would commence with the throwing of javelins supported by stones released from slings. A charge would follow and combat would take place between spear and shield armed warriors. The spear appears to have been shorter than contemporary examples from Britain and the shield was simply a round buckler. The wealthy warriors would have been armed with short swords. Large knives have also been discovered. This kind of equipment would have led to a very fast paced fighting style, emphasizing speed and mobility.
Armour There is very little evidence for Irish warriors of our period wearing any armour at all, after all why would a warrior need such an item, was he scared of getting hurt! However, the Deisi would possibly have had access to Roman and Romano British armouries and therefore the wealthiest warriors may have worn armour.
My reconstructed Irish sword, made by sword smith Paul Binns.