“Comely” Mughroin, a chief of the Sil Murray
Aodh’s son Mughroin was the first of our lineage who would not have been eligible for kingship. However he was still a chieftain of the Sil Murray: one of eleven who accompanied accompanied Tadhg Mor’s son Conchobhar, the king of Connacht in the battle of Cill Ua nDaighre in 866. The ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS says of them:
“These are the eleven men
who went into the battle to guard him.
There went into the battle to assist therein
Finnachta and Follamhain,
Maenach,---good was the disposition of the horseman,---
and Tadhg, son of Tomaltach;
Flannagan, beauteous chief of the cavalry,
and the comely Mughroin, grandson of Cathal;
Mannachan, good was his mind,
and Aidit, grandson of Maelmichil.”
The battle of Cill Ua nDaighre (866)
Our king Conchobhar and High king Aed, joined forces to face Flann, lord of all Breagh with his Viking and Leinster allies. While the number of Conachtmen is not given, the High King had only 1,000 and we appear to have been outnumbered by the 5,000 coming against us. The ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS has Aed declare against Flann:
“The troops of Leinster are with him,
with the additional men of the rapid Boinn;
What shews the treachery of Flann
is the concord of the Foreigners by his side.
Put ye the venom of your tongues upon him,
upon the narrow hearted son of Dubhsagh;
Mighty is our standard, Christ protects us
in the pass of danger in which we are.”
One of the poets declared:
“At Cill Ua nDaighre this day,
the ravens shall taste sups of blood,
A victory shall be gained over the magic host of the Foreigners,
and over Flann; it will be no good news to him.”
“The battle was eagerly and earnestly fought between them; and the victory was at length gained, by dint of wounding and fighting, over the men of Breagh, the Leinstermen, and the foreigners; and a slaughter was made of them, and a great number of the foreigners were slain in that battle.” Mannachan, the Sil Murray chieftain of whom it was said “good was his mind”, distinguished himself by killing “Flann, son of Conaing, lord of all Breagh”:
Great the triumph for Mannachan,
for the hero of fierce valour,
To have the head of the son of Conaing in his hand,
to exhibit it before the face of the son of Tadhg.
The resurgence of Cashel under Cormac (902-908)
We soon faced another enemy to the south, in the person of Archbishop Cormac of Cashel. He was reputedly “ the most learned of all who came or shall come of the men of Erin forever.” Cormac spoke Gaelic, Latin, Welsh, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and some Greek and Hebrew. He compiled the Psalter of Cashel and what appears to be Europe’s first dictionary. Unfortunately, Cormac also listened to his warlike counsellor Flaithbheartach. The ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS report that in 902:
“Another army was led by Cormac and Flaithbheartach against the Ui Neill of the South, and against the Connaughtmen; and they carried away the hostages of Connaught in their great fleets on the Shannon, and the islands of Loch Ribh (Rhee) were plundered by them.”
Cormac’s end came at Belach Mugna in 908. His warlike ambitions now led to an invasion of Leinster. Unknown to him, the armies of both the High King and Cathal of Connacht hastened to that province’s aid. The Sil Murray presumably marched with their sovereign, and “Comely” Mughroin’s son Duncath may have been among them. Cashel’s army had faced only the army of Leinster when it camped near the Barrow river for the night, but found itself under attack from three armies the following day! The battle became a rout. Two of Munster’s bishops were slain. Archbishop Cormac’s horse slipped on the bloody ground, and the warlike cleric’s neck was broken in the resulting fall. A remnant of his army returned home, but Cashel’s power was forever broken.
The Viking Threat
This left the Vikings free to establish themselves in the Southwest of Ireland. In 914 they once again raided up the Shannon into our lands bordering Loch Rhee. Six years later they established themselves to the south in Limerick. The battle deciding whether the Vikings of Limerick or Dublin would be paramount in Ireland took place on Loch Rhee. Limerick lost. This may have given fresh courage to my ancestors, who may have been among the Connachtmen that slaughtered everyone in one of their encampments on the shores of Loch Coirib during 928.
King Conor
Our province appears to have been relatively peaceful during the short reign of King Conor (966-971), from whom the O’Connors take their name. Yet the threat of intervention from Munster or Ulster prevented him from absorbing the O’Kelly state of U Maine. No sooner was Conor in his grave, than the Ulstermen defeated Connacht’s army and ravaged our lands.
Brian Boru
Brian Boru, whose name will forever be linked with the end of the Viking threat to Ireland, led the next fleet up the Shannon to burn and plunder. Our king allied himself to High King Malachy of Meath, but their dreams of resistance ending the following year when Boru forced both kings to render submission. Munster’s troops would repeatedly march across our lands in the years to come.
The Battle of Clontarf
No wonder that the O’Connor name is not found among those who responded to Boru’s summons in 1014, but some of my ancestors probably followed Tadg Mór O'Kelly of Ui Maine. We met the Vikings and their Leinster allies at Clontarf. The resulting battle is said to have been so fierce that the trees wept blood. O’Kelly fought “like a wolf dog”, but was finally cut down. Some of his kinsmen later wrote:
Unwillingly and willingly I fare to Dublin,
to the fort of Amlaíb of the golden shields;
from Dublin of the churches and the graves,
hard and slow will be my going.
O people of Dublin of the bells,
both abbot and bishop,
do not put clay over Tadg in the east
until I have been able to see him'
According to some O’Kelly was also the traitor who betrayed the position of 73 year old Brian Boru’s tent to the enemy! Thus in the moment of victory Ireland’s champion was cut down. The enemy seemed close to victory towards the end of the day, when King Malachy of Meath’s army arrived upon the scene. The battle ended the threat of a Viking empire in Ireland, and in the centuries to come they became as Irish as the Gaels.
Viking Influence in Ireland
The Vikings introduced many new practises to Irish society. They founded the nation’s first cities. Ireland’s first coins were minted in the Norse city of Dublin. The Vikings controlled the sea lanes: exporting Irish produce, and importing wheat, wine, fine leather and costly silks from the continent. The Irish words for large ships, markets and trade are all derived from Norse.
Irish contributions to the Norse
At the same time, Irish culture transformed the Vikings. Most of the Vikings were converted to Christianity as much as two generation before the battle of Clontarf. Many Norse students attended Irish universities such as Clonmacnois, and through them were introduced to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. By the end of the eleventh century the once pagan port of Dublin was known as “the city of churches and graveyards”. The poets of Ireland inspired the future of growth of Icelandic sagas.
A Century of Contention for the High Kingship
My ancestors clans are mentioned several times during the century of constant warfare that followed Clontarf. Ireland’s High Kings were reduced to being called “King with opposition”. Only one of the five that assumed that title were Ui Neill, and three O’Brians from Munster. The first mention of clan Tomaltach, which would eventually take the name Mageraghty, occurs in an entry from 1088:
King Ruaidhri Ua Conchobhair (Rory O’Connor), with the men of Connaught, took Inis-Adharcach before the men of Munster, to prevent their fleet from advancing further up; and Muircheartach (O’Brian) was defeated, and a slaughter was made of his people there. The crews of the same man's fleet were slaughtered, after they had sailed round westwards on the sea to plunder Connaught. Corco-Modhruadh was then plundered thrice by Ruaidhri, and it is wonderful if he left any cattle or people without destroying on these occasions; and three of the chieftains of Connaught, being left in danger, were slain, namely, Gillacoirpthe, son of Cathal Ua Mughron, chief of Clann-Cathail, and Cusinna, son of Murchadh Odhar, chief of Clann-Tomaltaigh, and the son of Gillachrist, son of Echthighern, chief of Corca-Achlann.
We were still numbered among the Sil Murray and presumably took part in some of the battles mentions by the FOUR MASTERS. These may explain why “High King” Muirchertach O'Brian expelled the Sil Murray from Connacht in 1093, but we returned to our homes without asking his permission. The following year we joined Tadhg O’Connor, to win a victory from Munster and its’ allies from Western Connacht.
Under High King Turlough O’Connor (1106-1156)
Our fortunes were tied to those of our royal cousins: the O’Connors. In 1119 Turlough O'Connor, king of Connacht, was able to utilise a civil war in Munster to vault himself into the High Kingship. He was the most powerful king since Brian Boru, but was unable to hold the other provincial kings under his control. By the middle of Turlough’s rule, we were suffering many defeats. In 1133 an army from Munster overran Connacht. The chief of the Sil Murray was killed in the fighting. The enemy were able to burn many places, but returned home “without peace or hostages”. Something of the strife now besetting our province was illustrated two years later, when the Conmhaicni (of Mayo) destroyed the original Abbey of Roscommon, with all it’s attached dwellings.
Muirchertach Mac Lochlain
But the real danger came from the north, where Muirchertach Mac Lochlain was reuniting Ulster under Ui Neill rule. In 1135 his fleet down the Sinainn into Loch Rhee. They demanded, and received, hostages from both the Sil Murray and our O’Kelly neighbours. He led his cavalry on a triumphant march from Meath to Dublin, accepting the submission of local princes along the route. Connacht was reeling from a series of Ui Neill offences by 1153, when Mac Lochlain ambushed Turlough O’Connor’s son Rory and :
“the battalion of West Connaught, and the recruits of Sil Murray, came to Fordruim; but as they were pitching their camp there, the heroes of the North poured upon them without previous notice, and numbers of the Connaughtmen were slain.”
Dermot and the lady of Breifne (1152 & 1153)
An incident that would forever change the history of Ireland occured around this time. Dervorgilla, the 44 year old wife of Tighernan O’Rourke, had long lusted after for 42 year old king Dermot MacMurrough of Leinster. She finally saw an opportunity to satisfy this desire, when her husband went on a pilgrimage. Dervorgilla arranged to be abducted! Her husband, who had been absent, returned to discover this betrayal and appealed to Connacht for help. Turlough O’Connor seized both Dervorgilla and her cattle from MacMurrough. Yet this did not satisfy Tighernan O’Rourke, who would devote the rest of his life to achieving MacMurrough’s downfall.
The battle of Oirghialla (1159)
This desire was delayed by the Ui Neill victory at Oirghialla. Rory O’Connor, at best a mediocre general, had by then succeeded his father. I can only that some of my ancestors would have accompanied him to the encounter which would allow the Ui Neill to regain the High Kingship. The ANNALS Relate that : “A battle was there fought between them, in which the Connaughtmen, the Conmhaicni, and Ui-Briuin, amounting in all to six large battalions, were defeated, and the other two battalions were dreadfully slaughtered.” The Ulstermen then proceeded to plunder Connacht “and destroyed a great part of the country generally.
Rory O’Connor becomes High King (1166)
Ireland was reduced to “a trembling sod”, as Rory O’Connor attempted to regain the High Kingship. His enemy “Muircheartach Ua Lochlainn, Monarch of all Ireland, the chief lamp of the valour, chivalry, hospitality, and prowess of the west of the world in his time” was victorious in every battle he fought for the next seven years. Then he made the mistake of violating the sanctuary of St Patrick’s church in Armagh to seize four of his enemies. Ua Lochlainn was surprised by his countrymen’s outrage, and slain by an invading army. Some of my ancestors were probably in a second army, which Rory O’Connor used to subject both Leinster and Munster. He was declared High King that very year, and might have ruled peacefully for many years had not Tighernan O’Rourke still sought vengeance upon MacMurrough. The desperate king of Leinster was forced to flee his province.
Henry II involved
King Henry II of England (r 1154-1189) was more than willing to receive MacMurrough. His ambition to conquer Ireland had lain dormant for 14 years, while other matters drew his energies. Even now, he was fighting the French. Yet this English king possessed a papal bull to conquer Ireland and “teach the truth of the Christian faith to the ignorant.”
Reform of the Irish Church
The need for a reform of the highly individualistic Celtic church had long been apparent even to many Irish themselves. It was only 1139 that St Malachy was appointed papal legate, and thus became the effective head of the Gaelic churches. (Norse Dublin would remain under the authority of Canterbury for several years.) At the time of his succession, St Patrick’s see in Armagh was owned by a single family who had established itself as lay abbots. Malachy’s primary goal was remove this practise, and once this was achieved he resigned. He also visited St Bernard’s Clairvaux, and was so impressed that he founded the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland. The monastic reform movement reached Roscommon in 1161, with the founding of Boyle abbey. Yet these remained individual ventures.
Catholics from England and the continent had several criticisms of the nation’s churches. St Bernard of Clairvaux is believed to have been disappointed by the lack of Irish participation in the Second Crusade. Gerald of Wales taunted the Irish for their lack of a single martyr, which seemed so peculiar in “a nation so exceedingly cruel and thirsty for blood.” But the greatest single objection was in regard to Ireland’s marriage practises. A number of Gaelic princes were polygamous, and justified their behaviour through Old Testament precedents. Divorce was easily obtained. An archbishop of Canterbury complained to one of the O’Brians that “in your kingdom a man abandons at his own discretion and without any grounds in canon law the wife who is lawfully married to him, not hesitating to form a criminal alliance ... with any other woman he pleases, either a relative of his own or of his deserted wife or a woman someone else has abandoned in an equally disgraceful way.” Some maintained that Divine displeasure over High King Rory O’Connor’s promiscuity is the real cause of Ireland’s downfall, and a dubious tradition recorded more than three decades after his death maintains that the pope offered him the prospect of six legal wives if only he would cease his adulteries.