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They were Vikings,* by origin — who had become somewhat French, in Normandy (a region of northern France,) while living there.
The Normans had invaded* England (in 1066) only a century-and-a-half after the Vikings had sailed into Normandy (in 911.)
So you could say that the Anglo-Normans who came to Ireland in the 12th-Century were Vikings, twice removed.
To call the Anglo-Normans of Ireland "Normans" is really kind of like calling* the Normans in England of 1066 "Vikings."
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*In Dutch, "Vikingen" were "Noormannen" on a plunder mission. There is a more proper word for Normans from Normandy, but most people refer to them also as "Noormannen," as if they were still Vikings but no longer on a seagoing plunder.
In Spanish, the words "Vikingo" and "Normando" seem to be mostly synonymous.
Return to "like calling the Normans ... of 1066" ...
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* The Vikings themselves had been to Ireland, of course — they'd been everywhere, Labrador to Baghdad, Arctic to Mediterranean.
The Vikings established the first cities in Ireland (Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick,) in the 800's and 900's AD — and ruled small parts of the island for 200 years.
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* The Norman conquest of England was total. While their number was a fraction of the indigenous population (maybe 10,000 against a million or two,) their military campaign was decisive.
In Ireland, the original force of Anglo-Normans was limited to a couple of hundred soldiers; and while their forces increased after that landing in Wexford of 1169, the "invasion" was never overwhelming; and indeed never complete.
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