An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800Cusack, Mary Francis
History
An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800
Cusack, Mary Francis
Ireland -- History
It would appear that the Irish were sufficiently occupied with domestic
wars to prevent their offering assistance elsewhere. This, however, was
not the case. When Harold returned to England, his brother-in-law,
Donough, lent him nine ships; and we find the Irish affording assistance
in several other feuds of the Anglo-Saxons of this period. A deputation
of the nobles of Man and other islands visited Dublin, and waited on
Murtough O'Brien to solicit a king. He sent his nephew, Donnell; but he
was soon expelled on account of his tyranny. Another Donnell O'Brien,
his cousin, was, at the same time, lord of the Danes in Dublin. In 1114
Murtough O'Brien was obliged to resign the crown in consequence of
ill-health; the Annals say that he became a living skeleton. His
brother, Dermod, took advantage of this circumstance to declare himself
King of Munster. This obliged Murtough to resume the reins of
government, and put himself at the head of his army. He succeeded in
making Dermod prisoner, but eventually he was obliged to resign the
kingdom to him, and retired into the Monastery of Lismore, where he died
in 1119. The Annals call him the prop of the glory and magnificence of
the western world. In the same year Nial Mac Lochlann, royal heir of
Aileach and of Ireland, fell by the Cinel-Moain, in the twenty-eighth
year of his age. He was the "paragon of Ireland, for personal form,
sense, hospitality, and learning." The Chief Ollamh of Ireland,
Cucollchoille ua Biagheallain, was killed by the men of Lug and
Tuatha-ratha (Tooragh, co. Fermanagh), with his wife, "two very good
sons," and five-and-thirty persons in one house, on the Saturday before
Little Easter. The cause of this outrage is not mentioned. The Annals of
the Four Masters and the Annals of Ulster record the same event, and
mention that he was distinguished for charity, hospitality, and
universal benevolence.
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