Edel Bhreathnach is an Irish historian and academic and former CEO of the Discovery Programme. [1]
Bhreathnach was a Tara Research Fellow for the Discovery Programme from 1992 to 2000. In 2005 she was appointed Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the study of Irish History and Civilization, at University College Dublin. In 2013, she left her role in the Ó Cléirigh Institute to rejoin the Discovery Programme as CEO. Her particular areas of interest concern the history of Tara in County Meath, dynastic politics in the kingdoms of Mide and Leinster.She is currently part of the Monastic Ireland network and has published a major study on monasticism in Ireland AD900-1250 (Four Courts Press, 2024).
The following is a provisional list of Bhreathnach's publications.
For the following see The Kingship and Landscape of Tara, below.
•‘Monasticism in Ireland AD 900-1250’ Four Courts Press Dublin, 2024
Diarmait mac Cerbaill was King of Tara or High King of Ireland. According to traditions, he was the last High King to follow the pagan rituals of inauguration, the ban-feis or marriage to goddess of the land. The last High King to observe the ancient pagan Feis Temrach or Assembly of Tara which took place on Samhain every three years to pass or renew laws, approve annals and records.
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.
Loch Gabhar (Lagore), meaning "Lake of the Goats", is an area in the barony of Ratoath, County Meath, Ireland. It is located between the villages of Ratoath and Dunshaughlin and is the namesake of the townlands of Lagore Big and Lagore Little.
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.
Túathal mac Cormaic, called Túathal Máelgarb, was said to be a grandson of Coirpre mac Néill. He was High King of Ireland. In the earliest accounts he appears to have been regarded as the man who completed the conquest of what would later be Brega for the descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages.
Túath is the Old Irish term for the basic political and jurisdictional unit of Gaelic Ireland. Túath can refer to both a geographical territory as well the people who lived in that territory.
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.
The Kings of Brega were rulers of Brega, a petty kingdom north of Dublin in medieval Ireland.
Coirpre mac Néill, also Cairbre or Cairpre, was said to be a son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Coirpre was perhaps the leader of the conquests that established the southern Uí Néill in the midlands of Ireland. The record of the Irish annals suggests that Coirpre's successes were reattributed to Muirchertach Macc Ercae. Coirpre is portrayed as an enemy of Saint Patrick in Bishop Tirechán's hagiography and his descendants are said to have been cursed by Patrick so that none would be High King of Ireland. Coirpre is excluded from most lists of High Kings, but included in the earliest.
Baile Chuind Chétchathaig is an Old Irish list of Kings of Tara or High Kings of Ireland which survives in two 16th-century manuscripts, 23 N 10 and Egerton 88. It is the earliest such king-list known, probably dating from around 700 AD. The later Baile In Scáil is closely related.
Airgíalla was a medieval Irish over-kingdom and the collective name for the confederation of tribes that formed it. The confederation consisted of nine minor kingdoms, all independent of each other but paying nominal suzerainty to an overking, usually from the most powerful dynasty. Airgíalla at its peak roughly matched the modern dioceses of Armagh and Clogher, spanning parts of counties Armagh, Monaghan, Louth, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderry. Its main towns were Armagh and Clogher. The name's usage survives as a cultural area of folk tradition in South East Ulster and adjoining areas of County Louth.
Muirchertach mac Muiredaig, called Mac Ercae, Muirchertach Macc Ercae and Muirchertach mac Ercae, was said to be High King of Ireland in the 6th century. The Irish annals contain little reliable information on his life, and the surviving record shows signs of retrospective modification. The Aided Muirchertaig Meic Erca takes as its theme Muirchertach's supernatural death.
Colmán Már mac Diarmato was an Irish king, son of Diarmait mac Cerbaill. Early sources and older scholarship distinguish two sons of Diarmait, Colmán Már and Colmán Bec, although some scholars suggest there was only one Colmán mac Diarmato. There are some traces of Colmán Bec in the Irish annals, but so far as Colmán Már is concerned only his putative death is recorded.
Dáire Cerbba was a 4th-century Irish dynast who was evidently a king of late prehistoric central northern Munster, called Medón Mairtíne at the time. A frequently believed grandson of his, Crimthann mac Fidaig, was High King of Ireland and some British territories, and another descendant Bressal mac Ailello may have been King of Munster, and whose sister Angias was Queen of Lóegaire mac Néill, High King of Ireland. Finally, another descendant, according to Geoffrey Keating, was a king of Munster named Cormac, son of Ailill, son of Eochaid, son of Dáire Cearb.
Dáire Doimthech, alias Dáire Sírchréchtach, son of Sithbolg, was a legendary King of Tara and High King of Ireland, and one of the eponymous ancestors of the proto-historical Dáirine and historical Corcu Loígde of Munster. A son of his was Lugaid Loígde, an ancestor of Lugaid Mac Con. In the Scéla Mosauluim, Dáire Doimthech is referred to as one of the five kings of Tara from Munster, or alternatively one of five Dáires to rule at Tara.
Dáire Drechlethan "Dáire of the Broad Face" is a king of Tara listed in the Old Irish Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig. His identity with any king of Tara from Irish legend remains uncertain because his epithet is unique in the surviving corpus related to Tara.
Lugaid Loígde "Lugaid of the Calf Goddess", also known as Lugaid mac Dáire, was a legendary King of Tara and High King of Ireland. He is a son of Dáire Doimthech, ancestor of the Dáirine, and gives his epithet to their principal royal sept, the Corcu Loígde. A descendant of Lugaid, with whom he may be to some extent identical, is the famous Mac Con, listed in the Old Irish kinglist Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig as Mac Con macc aui (moccu) Lugde Loígde.
The Ciannachta were a population group of early historic Ireland. They claimed descent from the legendary figure Tadc mac Céin. Modern research indicates Saint Cianán and his followers may have been the origin behind the tribal name as it is a late construction similar in form to Eóganachta and Connachta. They first appear in historical sources in the 6th century, and were found in several parts of the island, including in Brega and Airgialla. The Ciannachta groups were absorbed over time. Modern descendants have formed a Clan Cian society.