The Cath Maige Mucrama (in English the Battle of Mag Mucrama) is an early Middle Irish language tale which forms part of the Cycles of the Kings.
The cast includes several major figures from Irish pseudo-history, Ailill Aulom, his son Éogan Mór and his step- and foster-son Mac Con, along with the King of Tara Art mac Cuinn. Mag Mucrama, the plain of the counting of the pigs, was in Connacht, in the region of Athenry, County Galway. A tradition or folk etymology, in Irish dindshenchas , has it that the plain was named for the magical pigs which infested it until banished by Queen Medb of Connacht. [1]
Mac Con, exiled from Ireland, returns with the aid of the king of Britain, along with an army of Britons and Saxons, and conquers Ireland as far as Connacht where Éogan, with the help of Art mac Cuinn, plans to fight. The night before the battle Éogan and Art sleep with their hosts' daughters, conceiving the sons who will succeed them, Fiachu Muillethan in Éogan's case and Cormac mac Airt in Art's. Both Éogan and Art, as is foreseen, die in the battle at Mag Mucrama, and Mac Con becomes king of Tara. [2]
Mac Con takes Cormac mac Airt as his foster son, and rules for seven years. He then pronounces a false judgement, showing that he is unfit to rule, while Cormac gives a right judgment, showing that he is the stuff of kings. Disasters ensue—"no grass came through the earth, nor leaf on tree, nor grain in corn" says the story—and Mac Con is deposed and Cormac is made king in his place. Mac Con travels to Ailill's court, where his foster mother warns him that he is in peril. When Ailill embraces Mac Con he bites him with his poison tooth, wounding Mac Con, who flees but is killed by one of Ailill's warriors. [2]
The earliest surviving manuscript containing the tale is in the Book of Leinster , dated to the middle 12th century. The most recent translator dates the tale in that form to the 9th century. [3]
The purpose of the tale is presumed by some to have been political, to explain, and to justify, how it came about that the descendants of Art, that is the Connachta, and of Éogan, the Eóganachta, occupied the leading political positions in Ireland—the Connachta and their offshoot the Uí Néill provided the High King of Ireland and the King of Connacht, the Eóganachta the King of Munster —when their ancestral figures had been defeated by Mac Con, whose own descendants the Corcu Loígde were no longer a force after the 7th century. As such it forms part of the common origin legends of the Uí Néill and the Eóganachta. [4] Mac Con belonged to the ancient Dáirine, who were cousins of the Ulaid. The ancestors of the Eóganachta are known as the Deirgtine.
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2009) |
The Battle of Mag Mucrama has been translated by Whitley Stokes ("The Battle of Mag Mucrime", Revue Celtique, 13, 1892), by Standish O'Grady (included in Silva Gaedelica, 2 volumes, 1892) and by M. O'Daly in Cath Maige Mucrama: The Battle of Mag Mucrama (1975). [1] A modernization into modern Irish was published by Peadar Ua Laoghaire in 1917 as Lughaidh Mac Con. [5]
John O'Donovan queried its supposed location in the Ordnance Survey Books for County Galway. As late as the 11th century, it was still used as a locative term, as demonstrated by this obit in the Annals of Inisfallen:
Cormac mac Airt, also known as Cormac ua Cuinn or Cormac Ulfada, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. He is probably the most famous of the ancient High Kings, and may have been an authentic historical figure, although many legends have attached themselves to him, and his reign is variously dated as early as the 2nd century and as late as the 4th. He is said to have ruled from Tara, the seat of the High Kings of Ireland, for forty years, and under his rule, Tara flourished. He is credited for building many of the monuments at the Hill of Tara such as the Banqueting Hall, Cormac's house, and Gráinne's Enclosure, named after his daughter. He was famous for his wise, true, and generous judgments. In the Annals of Clonmacnoise, translated in 1627, he is described as:
"absolutely the best king that ever reigned in Ireland before himself...wise learned, valiant and mild, not given causelessly to be bloody as many of his ancestors were, he reigned majestically and magnificently".
Mongfind —meaning "fair hair" or "white hair"—is a figure from Irish legend. She is said to have been the wife, of apparent Munster origins, of the legendary High King Eochaid Mugmedón and mother of his eldest three sons, Brión, Ailill and Fiachrae, ancestors of the historical Connachta. She was Eochaid's first wife; his second wife, Cairenn, gave birth to Niall of the Nine Hostages. Several tales depict Mongfind as an adversary of Niall. Mongfind is also said to have been the sister of Crimthann mac Fidaig, King of Munster and the next High King of Ireland, whom she is said to have killed with poison in a bid to make her son king. She drank the poisoned drink to convince Crimthann, and died soon after at Samhain.
Lugaid Mac Con, often known simply as Mac Con, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. He belonged to the Corcu Loígde, and thus to the Dáirine. His father was Macnia mac Lugdach, and his mother was Sadb ingen Chuinn, daughter of the former High King Conn Cétchathach. Mac Con may be to some extent identical with another legendary King of Tara from the Dáirine, Lugaid Loígde.
Ailill Ollamh in Irish traditional history was the son of Mug Nuadat and was a king of the southern half of Ireland, placed in the 3rd century by early modern Irish genealogy. Sadb ingen Chuinn, daughter of Conn of the Hundred Battles, in her second marriage, married Ailill. He divided the kingdom between his sons Éogan Mór, Cormac Cas, and Cían. Éogan founded the dynasty of the Eóganachta. Sadb's son Lugaid Mac Con, who was Ailill's foster-son, became High King of Ireland.
In Irish traditional history Eógan, eldest son of Ailill Ollamh, was a 2nd or 3rd century AD king of Munster. He ruled for either fifteen or seventeen years, though fifteen is the number most often given. He is credited with founding or at least giving his name to the Eóganachta, a dynasty which ruled as kings of Munster and later princes of Desmond until the late 16th century. He died at the battle of Maige Mucrama at the hands of his stepbrother, Lugaid Mac Con, which story is told in the Cath Maige Mucrama. The son of Eógan Mór was Fiachu Muillethan. His mother was Sadb ingen Chuinn, daughter of Conn of the Hundred Battles.
The Eóganachta or Eoghanachta were an Irish dynasty centred on Cashel which dominated southern Ireland from the 6/7th to the 10th centuries, and following that, in a restricted form, the Kingdom of Desmond, and its offshoot Carbery, to the late 16th century. By tradition the dynasty was founded by Conall Corc but named after his ancestor Éogan, the firstborn son of the semi-mythological 3rd-century king Ailill Aulom. This dynastic clan-name, for it was never in any sense a 'surname,' should more accurately be restricted to those branches of the royal house which descended from Conall Corc, who established Cashel as his royal seat in the late 5th century.
Crimthann Mór, son of Fidach, also written Crimthand Mór, was a semi-mythological king of Munster and High King of Ireland of the 4th century. He gained territory in Britain and Gaul, but died poisoned by his sister Mongfind. It is possible that he was also recognized as king of Scotland. This Crimthann is to be distinguished from two previous High Kings of Ireland of the same name, two Kings of Leinster, and another King of Munster, among others. Importantly, he is included in the Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig (summary), and is thus the last High King of Ireland from Munster until Brian Bóruma, over six hundred years later.
The term Kingship of Tara was a title of authority in ancient Ireland - the title is closely associated with the archaeological complex at the Hill of Tara. The position was considered to be of eminent authority in medieval Irish literature and Irish mythology, although national kingship was never a historical reality in early Ireland. The term also represented a prehistoric and mythical ideal of sacred kingship in Ireland. Holding the title King of Tara invested the incumbent with a powerful status. Many Irish High Kings were simultaneously Kings of Tara. The title emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times, actual claimants to this title used their position to promote themselves in status and fact to the High Kingship. Prior to this, various branches of the Uí Néill dynasty appear to have used it to denote overlordship of their kindred and realms. It was associated with Feis Temro, a pagan inauguration rite.
Ailill mac Nath Í, called Ailill Molt, is included in most lists of the High Kings of Ireland and is also called King of Connacht. His cognomen, molt, means "ram" but its origin is unknown.
Cormac mac Cuilennáin was an Irish bishop and the king of Munster from 902 until his death at the Battle of Bellaghmoon. He was killed in Leinster.
Cathal mac Finguine was an Irish King of Munster or Cashel, and effectively High King of Ireland as well. He belonged to the Eóganacht Glendamnach sept of the dominant Eóganachta kin-group whose members dominated Munster from the 7th century to the 10th. His father, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather had also been kings of Cashel, as were his son and grandson.
Muirgius mac Tommaltaig was a King of Connacht from the Uí Briúin branch of the Connachta. He was the great-grandson of Indrechtach mac Muiredaig Muillethan, a previous king. The death of his father Tommaltach mac Murgail is recorded in the annals where he is called king of Mag nAi. Muirgius was of the Síl Muiredaig sept of the Uí Briúin. He reigned from 792 to 815.
The Kingdom of Munster was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland which existed in the south-west of the island from at least the 1st century BC until 1118. According to traditional Irish history found in the Annals of the Four Masters, the kingdom originated as the territory of the Clanna Dedad, an Érainn tribe of Irish Gaels. Some of the early kings were prominent in the Red Branch Cycle such as Cú Roí and Conaire Mór. For a few centuries they were competitors for the High Kingship or Ireland, but ultimately lost out to the Connachta, descendants of Conn Cétchathach. The kingdom had different borders and internal divisions at different times during its history.
The Dáirine, later known dynastically as the Corcu Loígde and associated, were the proto-historical rulers of Munster before the rise of the Eóganachta in the 7th century AD. They were derived from or closely associated with the Darini of Ptolemy and were also related to the Ulaid and Dál Riata of Ulster and Scotland. Their ancestors appear frequently in the Ulster Cycle. In historical times the Dáirine were represented, as stated, by the Corcu Loígde, the Uí Fidgenti and Uí Liatháin, as well as a few other early historical kindreds of both Munster and Ulster. In ancient genealogical schemes, the historical Dál Fiatach of Ulaid also belong to the Dáirine.
The Deirgtine, Clanna Dergthened or "Descendants of Dego Dergthened" were the proto-historical ancestors of the historical Eóganachta dynasties of Munster. Their origins are unclear but they may have been of fairly recent Gaulish derivation. Some evidence exists for their having been active in Roman Britain.
Fiachu Muillethan or Fiachu Fer Da Liach, son of Éogan Mór, was a legendary king belonging to the Deirgtine, the proto-historical ancestors of the Eóganachta dynasties of Munster. He is known primarily from the saga Forbhais Droma Dámhgháire, in which he is assisted by the famous Mug Ruith, who repels an invasion of his kingdom by Cormac mac Airt. The sons of Fiachu Muillethan were Ailill Flann Mór and Ailill Flann Bec.
Achtan, fl. c. 1st-2nd centuries AD, mother of Cormac mac Airt.
Sadb ingen Chuinn was a daughter of Conn of the Hundred Battles, a High King of Ireland. She married firstly Macnia mac Lugdach, prince of the Dáirine or Corcu Loígde, and was mother of Lugaid Mac Con, High King of Ireland. Upon the death of Macnia, she married secondly Ailill Aulom, king of southern Ireland, and was mother of Éogan Mór, ancestor of the Eóganachta. Her brother was Art mac Cuinn, also a High King of Ireland, while her sister Sáruit married Conaire Cóem of the Érainn, who was High King before him.