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.
English help for MacMurrough
Henry II received MacMurrough “with great kindness and the liberty and courtesy which was natural to him, and having heard the causes of his exile and coming over, and receiving his bond of allegiance and oath of fealty.” Still too preoccupied to venture forth himself, the English king issued a proclamation of his favour to any barons who would undertake MacMurrough’s cause.
Strongbow
Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow, was the main respondent. He was a veteran campaigner, whose family owned estates stretching from Kent to Wales, but currently out of favour with the king. Gerald or Wales wrote “A man with reddish hair, freckled skin, grey eyes, feminine features, thin voice and short neck. For the rest, he was tall in stature, open-handed, and kindly in disposition. What he could not accomplish by force he would effect by gentle speech.” In return for the hand of MacMurrough’s daughter in marriage, and the prospect of being declared heir to Leinster, he agreed to go to Ireland.
The invasion of Ireland
MacMurrough returned home before him. A Norman advance party of 600 enabled him to capture Wexford. Then Rory O’Connor arrived with a Gaelic army. Dreading the prospect of fighting the mail clad Normans, he offered to let MacMurrough retain Leinster IF he would sent the foreigners away. MacMurrough agreed, and gave his own son as a hostage, but was really only stalling. After the High King departed, Strongbow brought the main Norman contingent and, together with MacMurrough, advanced on Dublin. Gerald of Wales recorded the angry message that O’Connor dispatched to his rebellious vassal:
“Contrary to the conditions of our treaty of peace, you have invited a host of foreigners into this island, and yet, as long as you kept within the bounds of Leinster we have bore it patiently. But new, forasmuch as, regardless of your solemn oaths, and having no concern for the hostages you gave, you have broken the bounds agreed upon and insolently crossed the frontiers of your own territory; either restrain in future the eruptions of your foreign bands, or I will certainly have your son’s head cut off and sent to you.”
The Battle of Dublin (1171)
As many as 30,000 warriors are believed to have followed O’Connor to Dublin. The chiefs of all four royal Sil Murray clans – the McGeraghty, O'Flannagan, O'Mulrenhan and O'Finaghty – presumably brought their contingents. So would have the O'Kelly of Galway and Southern Roscommon. Some of my ancestors would have would have followed these men into battle. Connacht’s army camped at Castleknock and Finglas, and our allies from Ulster and Munster took up similar posts around the city. Possessing no siege engines, our only recourse was to starve them out. Two months passed. Dermot MacMurrough was dead, and Strongbow, who had succeeded to his throne, offered to accept O’Connor as his feudal master. Had he not been so confident, our High King might have agreed. Instead he demanded the Normans surrender all their strongholds and leave Ireland.
He was bathing in the river Liffey, when the enemy knights and their supporting Welsh archers attacked our camp at Finglas. Our lightly armed troops were no match for the solid iron phalanx that fell upon us. They slew 1,500 of our men, and took many prisoners, while only losing a single English foot soldier! Our High King barely escaped alive, and we returned home with broken spirits.
Oireachta O' Raduibh
Oireachta O' Raduibh, from whom the Mageraghtys derive their name, may have already been chief of the Sil Murray at this time. He was the lord of 24,000 acres (and 48 townships) in an area that stretched from Carnfree to the eastern shores of Loch Rhee, but was especially strong in the barony of Roscommon. His importance illustrated by his wealth, and the number of commoners who relied on him for a living. Some of my ancestors probably accompanied him, or one of his sons, when they “carried off countless cows.” from Munster.
Henry II Arrives
Our attention would have been riveted to Dublin, when Henry II decided it was time he took possession of this new land. He brought 500 knights and 4,000 supporting troops. His subsequent campaign was more of a royal procession. The Irish chiefs were mesmerised by his genuine friendliness and courtly manners – which contrasted so starkly with the bluntness of the Norman then in Ireland. He entertained them with lavish banquets at Dublin palace throughout the winter. Strongbow was among the first to submit, but soon there was talk of most of the leaders of Munster accepting English rule. Most of the Irish church accepted Henry II’s primacy at a special synod held in Cashel. Though safe behind the Shannon river, even Rory O’Connor decided to meet with the English envoys. By the time of his departure, the English king was the undisputed lord of Leinster, Meath, and the cities of Dublin, Wexford and Waterford. Then the fighting resumed.
Oireachta O' Raduibh and the victory at Thurles (1174)
Either Oireachta O' Raduibh or one of his sons probably led us to the battle of Thurles. Strongbow was fighting in Munster, and the Gaelic chiefs decided to intercept a contingent of Ostmen then was marching from Dublin to reinforce him. The BOOK OF THE FOUR MASTERS states that: “Thither came Donnell O'Brien and the Dalcassians, the battalion of West Connaught, the great battalion of the Sil-Murray, besides numerous other good troops left there by the King, Roderic (Rory). A brave battle was fought between the English and Irish at this place, in which the English were finally defeated by dint of fighting.” Upon receiving news of the disaster, Strongbow abandoned his plans and retired to Leinster.
The offensive of 1174
The Annals mention “M’Ghorathie” (McOireachtiahgh?) and our neighbour O’Kelly among the chiefs that followed the High King into Meath. Learning that 20,000 Gaels were about to fall upon them, the Normans burned their castles at Trim and Dunluce, then fled. We marched “up to the very walls of Dublin” before word of an approaching enemy army reached us. The Normans had never been beaten on a battlefield, and Rory O’Connor deemed it prudent to retire.
The High King deposed
Instead he sent three clergymen to England. By the resulting treaty of Windsor, O’Connor became Henry II’s “liege king”. All the lands that the Normans had conquered – Leinster, Meath, Dublin, Wexford and Waterford – became Henry II’s possessions. Rory was to exercise nominal rule over the north of Ireland, and pay an annual tribute and adhere to England’s commands.
Invasion of Roscommon (1177)
Two years later, Rory O’Connor’s delinquent son Murrough invited the enemy into Roscommon. Five hundred Normans followed one of their chosen captains into our lands. We burned all of our churches in their path, lest they obtain shelter. Then we drove the enemy from our land. Murrough fell into our hands, and Rory O’Connor had his eyes taken out as a punishment for the evil he had brought upon us.
Last Years of Rory O’Connor
Our former High King soon had difficulty even holding on to Connacht. The Lord of Tirconnell defeated his sons in the battle of Carbury. Sixteen nobles - Oireachta O' Raduibh’s son Gilchreest among them – were slain. Despising his father’s weakness, Conor O’Connor rebelled and established an Irish league to fight the Normans. Rory abdicated and was forced to flee into Munster.
Oireachta arranged his return, and was in Rory’s flagship when it triumphantly sailed up the Shannon river into Loch Rhee in 1190. Then a sudden storm scattered all hope of a Gaelic comeback. Oireachta O' Raduibh and two of his sons were among those drowned when the royal vessel sunk. The once proud Rory O’Connor was reduced to living his last years in the seclusion of Cong abbey.
Observations of the Irish (1187 AD)
Gerald of Wales, who accompanied an English prince to Ireland around this time, wrote down his observations of us. He believed that we were “so barbarous that cannot be said to have any culture. They use very little wool in their dress and that itself nearly always black – because the sheep of that country are black ... When they are riding, they do not use saddles, leggings or spurs. They drive on, and guide their horses by means of a stick with a crook at its upper end, which they hold in their hand ... They are a wild and inhospitable people. They live on beasts only, and live like beasts ...
“They use the fields as pasture, but pasture in poor condition. Little is cultivated, and even less sown. The fields cultivated are so few because of the neglect of those who should cultivate them. But many of them are naturally very fertile and productive. The wealth of the soil is lost, not through the fault of the soil, bust because there are no farmers to cultivate even the best land: ‘the fields demand, but there are no hands.’ How few kinds of fruit bearing trees are grown here! The nature of the soil is not to be blamed, but rather want of industry on the part of the cultivator... They do not devote their lives to the processing of flax or wool, or any kind of merchandise or mechanical art. For given only to leisure and devoted only to laziness, they think that the greatest pleasure is not to work, and the greatest wealth is to enjoy liberty.”
Irish Music (1187)
Only in regard to our music, would Gerald acknowledge that the Irish “seem to me to be incomparably more skilled in these than any other people I have ever seen. The movement is not, as in the British instrument to which we are accustomed, slow and easy, but rather quick and lively, while at the same time the melody is sweet and pleasant. It is remarkable how, in spite of the great speed of their fingers, the music proportion is maintained. The melody is kept perfect and full with unimpaired art through everything – through quivering measures and the use of several instruments – with a rapidity that charms, a rhythmic pattern that is varied, and a concord achieved through elements discordant. They harmonize at intervals of the octave and the fifth, but always begin with B flat and with B flat end, so that everything may be rounded with the sweetness of charming sonority. They glide so subtly from one mode to another, and the grace notes so freely sport with such abandon and bewitching charm around the steady tone of the heavier sound, and the perfection of their art seems to lie in their concealing it, as if it were better for being hidden.”
Persecution of the Irish
The Gaelic princes would soon complain that “Whenever any Englishman, by perfidy or craft, kills an Irishman, however noble, or however innocent, be he clergy or layman ... nay, even if an Irish prelate were to be slain, there is no penalty or correction enforced Against the person who may be guilty of such wicked murder, but rather the more eminent the person killed, and the higher the rank which he holds among his people, so much more is the murder honoured and rewarded by the English, and not merely by the people at large, but also by the religious and bishops, of the English and, above all, by those on whom devolves officially the duty of inflicting on such malefactors a just reward and equitable correction for their evil deeds.”
Cathal Crovderg O’Connor (r 1201-1224)
Cathal Crovderg O’Connor could well have uttered these statements. He had guided Connacht throughout the years that his brother Rory, the former High King, was in Cong Abbey. But William de Burgh, Henry II’s viceroy of Ireland, then drove Cathal from the throne and installed an O’Connor more to his liking as king. This was not the end of de Burgh’s interventions: Two years later he brought Cathal Crovderg O’Connor back! Only the Norman’s timely death prevented yet another war from erupting after these two former enemies resumed their quarrel.
The details of O’Connor’s coronation have been recorded. As was the custom, he proceeded out from the royal palace at Cruachan with an immense party of chieftains, subkings, bishops and other notables of Connacht. Among these was his cousin Mageraghty, whom he gave 'twelve score milk cows, twelve score sheep and twelve score cows" to celebrate his accession. Another of the dignitaries was the royal treasurer O’Kelly. This procession made it’s way to the stone of Scone at Canfree. Cathal left his sword in front of this monument, as a symbol that he would not resort to needless force. Then he walked around it three times, to view his lands. Then he put his foot in an ancient impression which the first king of Connacht is said to have left in the stone. Cathal ruled over Connacht for 23 years. In 1215 he agreed to pay king John of England an annual rent of 300 marks, and in return received the status of “tenant-in chief” of all Connacht except Athlone (where the Normans built a castle to guard the ford over the Shannon).
Richard de Burgh
The de Burghs returned after Cathal’s death. Young Richard had been only 14 years old when his father William died. How he must have chafed during Cathal’s long reign! Suddenly he had an opportunity to intervene in Connacht's kingship and set his own candidate upon the throne.
Donn Oge Mageraghty
But Donn Oge Mageraghty, chief of the Sil-Murray, “wished to revenge himself for the confiscation of his land and patrimony; and when he revolted the whole of Connacht revolted.” With O’Neill help, he had one of Rory O’Connor’s sons crowned at Carnfree. Yet the fighting had only begun:
Cathal Crobderg's son determined to lead his Galls (Normans) to follow up the cattle of the Tuatha, of Sil Murray and Clann Tomaltaig by a way that none thought a Gall would ever take, namely through Fid Gatlaig; and they reached Attymas untouched by spear or dart. They plundered Coolcarney and wrought destruction on its cattle and folk on that day, for as many of them as reached the level plains without being drowned were plundered and slain. A pitiful thing: all who went to Ballycong were drowned, and the weirs were found to have their wattles full of drowned children. Some of the refugees of Clann Tomaltaig who evaded the Galls and escaped drowning went into Tirawley, where O Dubda fell upon them and left them without a single cow.
Donn Oge Mageraghty was one of Aed O’Connors chief supporters, and together with his officers “vowed they would never own a lord who should bring them to make submission to the Galls. They made then great raids on the Galls ... Donn Oc and the sons of Magnus with the new levies of Sil Murray plundered Mac Gosdelb and Tir Maine as far as Athlone.” The ANNALA CONNACHT describes his death:
“Having determined to take up a position on the western flank of the Galls, he (Donn Oc Mageraghty) went to Fincharn, having with him his own kinsmen, the youth of Sil Murray, his own Galls, the son of Domnall Bregach O Mailsechlainn with his Galls, and Brian son of Toirrdelbach [O Conchobair], and there they watched the Galls passing by. Donn Oc sent a party to harass them, which maintained a good fight against them while he kept to his position on the Cairn, eagerly watching the fight. Then the Galls sent a large party of soldiery and horsemen to pass round the Cairn, and they noticed nothing until they had surrounded it on the western side and Donn was left alone with a few of his kinsmen and Brian mac Toirrdelbaig; and it was but a short time that they were left together in this wise. For Donn was proclaimed and recognised and set upon, single-handed as he was, by many of the soldiers, and he had five arrows in his body when a horseman attacked him, and he had nothing but an axe; yet he kept the horseman at a distance, parrying his spear with the axe. At last the soldiery all rushed at him and this brave warrior, surrounded on every side, fell before the overpowering number of champions who were smiting him.
Felim O’Connor
By 1235 the Normans were in control and King Felim O’Connor reduced to being a mere tenant on the 5 cantreds of land remaining to him. (The other 25 cantreds of Connacht belonged to Richard de Burgh!) Felim could not easily submit to such humiliation and in 1241 joined his Mageraghty supporters in an attempt to oust the Normans, but we were defeated.
Fall of the Mageraghtys
The Mageraghty and Sil Murray appear in the ANNALS on several occasions in the violent decades that followed. “Tomaltach Mag Oirechtaig”, chief of the Sil Murray, is first mentioned killing one of his enemies in Athlone. Fourteen years later he brought the reign of Aed O’Connor to an end after only a fortnight. Yet he himself would fall in battle with the Tuatha from North Roscommon. Manus O’Connor took advantage of our weakness to conquer Roscommon, but the Sil-Murray survived and chose the king of Connacht in 1305. We were finally defeated in a bloody battle, and our lands burned, during a civil war between two scions of the O’Connor house in 1385. Different sources credit O'Conor Roe or the Anglo-Irish Burkes (formerly de Burghs) with driving our chiefs from their ancestral homeland.
Aghagower Monastery
A branch of the Mageraghty clan became hereditary abbots of the monastery of Aghagower, in county Mayo. The first of these clergymen appears to be a son of the Oireachta O' Raduibh who had been a staunch supporter of High King Rory O’Connor. Diarmaid MagOireachtaigh was abbot in 1224. Benedictus MagOireachtaigh was slain by the O’Connors in 1247. The Normans destroyed Aghagower the following year, but one of Benedictus’ grandchildren retained possession of the land as late as 1316.