Footnotes for article:
'Desmond Before The Norman Invasion: a political study'


  1. Cormac Mac Carthy (1123-1138) was exceptional in that, while he did not aspire to the high-kingship, he spent most of his reign undermining the high-kingship of Turlough O'Connor.  See H.A. Jefferies, 'Desmond: the early years', JCHAS lxxxviii (1983), pp. 81-99.


  2. The best introduction to pre-Norman Ireland is D. Ó Corráin, Ireland before the Normans, (Dublin 1972).


  3. G. Orpen, Ireland under the Normans (Oxford 1911), I, 23-5.


  4. Ibid. p. 39.


  5. W.L. Warren, 'The interpretation of twelfth century Irish history', in J.C. Beckect (ed.), Historical Studies VII, (London 1969), p. 4.


  6. D. Ó Corráin, 'Nationality and kingship in pre-Norman Ireland' in T.W. Moody (ed.), Nationality and the pursuit of national independence, (Belfast 1978), pp. 1-35.


  7. Ibid. p. 11.


  8. Ibid. p. 25.


  9. Ibid. p. 8.


  10. Ibid. p. 25. Also cf. Cormac Mac Carthy's grants from Béirre to Cong Abbey.


  11. Ibid.; for administration, pp. 26-30; for warfare, pp. 29-30.


  12. An alliance was formed against Muirchertach O'Brien in 1118; against Turlough O'Connor in 1124 and 1131-33; against Turlough O'Brien in 1151, 1153 etc.


  13. Cf. for instance, the disintegration of the Mac Carthy/O'Brien alliance on the attainment of its goals in 1133.  Jefferies, loc. cit., pp. 94-5.


  14. As for instance with Turlough O'Connor in 1118.


  15. Annals of Clonmacnoise, (Dublin 1896), s.a. 1131 (recte 1139).


  16. Jefferies, loc. cit. p. 95.


  17. Jefferies, loc. cit. pp. 89-95.


  18. i.e. the chief heir-apparent of Munster.  Annals of the Four Masters, (Dublin 1848/51), s.a. 1144.  This is an interesting throw-back from the Mac Carthy/O'Brien alliance.  Jefferies, loc. cit. pp. 89-90.


  19. Miscellaneous Irish Annals, (Dublin 1947), s.a. 1142.


  20. A.F.M. 1144 and MIA 1144.


  21. AFM 1145.


  22. MIA 1151.


  23. Móin Mór may be identified with the area about Mourne Abbey, near Mallow.


  24. Ó Corráin, Ireland, p. 160.


  25. Whitley Stokes, 'Annals of Tigernach', Révue Celtique XVIII, (Paris 1897), s.a. 1151.


  26. An anonymous set of annals from Connacht record that 'until the sands of the sea and the stars of the heavens be numbered, it will not be numbered how many nobles, chieftains and gentlemen of Munster were slain there' in 1151.  (T.C.D. MS F.I.18, p. 415.)  Among the dead were Muirchertach mac Conchobhar O'Brien, the tánaiste, with many O'Deas, O'Kennedys, Hogans, O'Gradys, and other lesser clans.


  27. MIA 1152.


  28. MIA 1154, A. Tig. 1154.


  29. In 1123 they were ranked after O'Mahony and O'Sullivan; in 1126 after O'Mahony and O'Donoghue -- a position they retained in 1151.  In Diarmaid's reign they fade into obscurity.  See Mac Carthy's Book.


  30. AFM 1151.  For some interesting observations on the Uí Carráin see D. Ó Corráin, 'Onomata', ÉRIÚ XXX (1979), pp. 173-6.


  31. Annals of Inisfallen (Dublin 1951), s.a. 1160.  See also D. Ó Murchadha, 'The Uí Meic Thíre of Imokilly', JCHAS lxxxii (1977) pp. 98-101.


  32. AFM 1151.


  33. The Life of Declan, patron saint of Ardmore, was wrirten about this time to lend some weight to Ardmore's claim to be the episcopal see of the Déise.  See C. Plummer. (ed.), Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae II, (Oxford 1910). pp. 32-59.


  34. See MIA 1126 (recte 1127), and MIA 1135.


  35. MIA 1155.


  36. A. Tig. 1138.


  37. MIA 1156.


  38. AI 1164.


  39. Note that the annals for the early 1150s repeatedly refer to Mac Carthy acting in conjunction with 'the nobles of the Eóghanachta' -- who are sometimes named.  With the growth of Mac Carthy power this usage becomes conspicuous by its absence.


  40. See especially D.A. Binchy, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingship (Oxford 1970), and F.J. Byrne, Irish kings and high-kings (London 1971).  See also G. Mac Niocaill, Ireland before the Vikings (Dublin 1972), pp. 44-9 and 56-9, and Ó Corráin, Ireland, pp. 28-37.


  41. The best work to date on the 'new kings' (as Ó Corráin terms them) is Ó Corráin's 'Nationality and kingship' article cited above, pp. 22-35.


  42. AFM 1153.  The anonymous annals report that Turlough O'Brien blinded his brother Tadhg, who died in Lismore monastery soon afterwards.


  43. MIA 1154.


  44. MIA 1158.


  45. AI 1161.  Among those killed were Aodh mac Amlaíb Mór O'Donoghue, king of Cenél Laegaire and Loch Léin, Mael Seachlainn, son of Cellachán, and Aodh O'Keefe.


  46. Note that Cormac Mac Carthy's conquests in Béirre were styled his 'patrimony', and that a small portion of this 'royal land' was granted by Diarmaid Mac Carthy and his son Cormac Liathánach, to Gill Abbey.  See Dermot's Charter in E. Bolster, History of Cork Diocese I, (Shannon 1972) pp. 95-6.


  47. AI 1175 -- 'a (fh)eran féin'.  I have found no evidence for any mensal lands among the Clann Cárthaig at this time, and I suspect that Diarmaid may have got this particular land from his father in the 1120s or 30s.


  48. AI 1176.


  49. K.W. Nicholls, Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland, Dublin 1972, p. 70.


  50. For the operation of this process c.f. Ó Corráin, Ireland, pp. 44-5 and Nicholls, op. cit., pp. 10-11.


  51. Thus declared the 17th century antiquarian Dualtagh Mac Firbisigh, who would have had first-hand experience of the process in his youth.  Cited in Nicholls, op. cit., p. 10.


  52. Cf. Jefferies, loc. cit., p. 87.


  53. Only one report of a twelfth century king of Desmond granting a tuarastal is preserved in the annals.  In 1120 (A.I.) 'Osraige gave (Tadhg Mac Carthy) hostages and received (in return) a large tuarastal of gold and steeds'.


  54. Binchy, op. cit., p. 31.


  55. Note for instance that on every occasion on which a king of Desmond submitted to an aspirant high-king the annals report the submission of pledges and hostages -- but only in 1166 is a king of Desmond recorded as having received a tuarastal.  If tuarastal were given on other occasions the annalist must not have considered them worthy of notice.  I suspect that, as a general rule, tuarastal were granted only to those clients whose loyalty was reasonably assured.


  56. This suggestion is supported by the law-tract Críth Gablach in which such hostages are accorded an honourable place in the royal banqueting hall.  (Cited in Binchy, op. cit. p. 21.)


  57. The bonds of fosterage were very strong in Gaelic Ireland.  In 1166 Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn blinded the king of Ulaid whose foster-father, O'Carroll, king of Airgialla, consequently rebelled against Mac Lochlainn and had him killed.  This one act destroyed the overlordship of Ulster and allowed Rory O'Connor to gain the high-kingship.
    The only reference to fostering in twelfth century Desmond, is the fostering of Cathal mac Amlaib Mór O'Donoghue by Diarmaid Mac Carthy's son Cormac Liathánach. (AI 1170).


  58. I have recently learnt that Cormac Mac Carthy married a daughter of Conchubhar O'Brien to cement the Mac Carthy/O'Brien alliance in 1127.  Yet he was already married and living 'in adultery'.  See St John D. Seymour, 'Studies in the Vision of Tundal', P.R.I.A. XXXVII (1924-7) pp. 88-90.
    Cormac's chief wife was Dirbail ingen hUí Lorcáin of the Uí Muireadaigh of Leinster.  This woman was mother to Diarmaid Mac Carthy. Cf. Margaret Dobbs, 'The Ban-shenchus', Révue Celtique XXXXVIII, p. 192.


  59. Ban-shenchus, p. 192.


  60. C. Doherty, 'Exchange and trade in early medieval Ireland', JRSAI cx (1980) pp. 73-5.


  61. Ibid., p. 79 and Ó Corráin, 'Nationality', p. 22.


  62. Annals of Ulster, (Dublin 1893). s.a. 1168.  See also AFM 1168.


  63. See K.W. Nicholls, 'Gaelic society and economy in the high middle ages', Chap. XIII, New History of Ireland II, (forthcoming).


  64. Much useful evidence for twelfth century Desmond can be found in two late pre-Norman tracts, viz:
    P. Power (ed.), Crichad an Chaoilli: being a topography of ancient Fermoy, (Cork 1932) and the 'Genealogies of the Corca Laoighdhe' in J. O'Donovan (ed.), Miscellany of the Celtic Society, (Dublin 1849).  See also Ó Corráin, Ireland, pp. 171-2.
    K.W. Nicholls informs me that only in Decies are there any indications of baile being used for assessment purposes in (twelfth-century) Munster.


  65. 'Dermot's Charter' -- translation to be found in E. Bolster, op. cit., pp. 95-6.


  66. Kuno Meyer (ed.), The Vision of Mac Conglinne, (London 1898), and see Jefferies, loc. cit., p. 98, fn. 78.


  67. Vision, p. 56.


  68. Ibid., p. 44.


  69. This view is encouraged by the fact that these levies do not appear in the earliest surviving version of the Vision (T.C.D. H.3.18), but only in the Leabhar Breac version which was edited by a Cork monk c. 1133.


  70. Wendy Davies, Wales in the early middle ages, (Leicester 1982), pp. 129-130.  G.W.S. Barrow, Kingship & Unity: Scotland 1000-1300, (London 1981), p. 5.  P.H. Sawyer, From Roman Britain to Norman England, (London 1978), pp. 180-1.


  71. There are references to the royal host 'consuming their banquets and provisions' in Cathréim p. 60 and p. 74, and also in the Vision pp. 44-6.  See also AFM 985.
    We also find references to Easter Houses (Tech cásga) in twelfth-century Ireland (e.g., O'Connor Kerry built one at Asdee, by the Shannon, MIA 1147).  K. Nicholls suggested to me that these buildings may have accommodated great feasts after the taxes had been collected at Easter.  It strikes me that those feasts may have been an annual event attended by the king and all of his chief clients (See MIA 1165).  Such occasions would have been ideal for promulgating new laws and decrees for the overlordship.


  72. J.H. Todd (ed.), Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, (London 1867).  Cogadh is a powerful propagandist work for the Dál Cais.  It is generally ascribed to the reign of Muirchertach O'Brien (1086-1118).  Significantly, the latter portion of Cogadh refers to a number of Desmond princes claiming that 'alternate sovereignty (of Munster) was their natural right' (p. 215) after the death of Brian Boroimhe.  And it counters this with a most peculiar argument; one the Desmond princes is made to say to another that 'I shall not go with thee against the Dál Cais, because I am not better pleased to be under thee than under the son of Brian Boroimhe, unless (it be) for the profit of the land and territory for myself' (p. 215).  This contrasts sharply with the confident approach of the Mac Carthy-sponsored Caithréim which seeks to inspire loyalty, but which also makes clear what terrible punishment might be expected for disloyalty.  See A. Bugge, Caithréim Cheallacháin Chaisil, (Christiana 1906), pp. 68, 70, 71, 73, 74.  Significantly too, all the great forts named in Cogadh are located in Thomond (p. 141).  Thus I suggest that Cogadh may be a product of Dalcassian weakness, written c. 1114 to bolster the crumbling authority of the ailing Muirchertach O'Brien.


  73. A. Bugge (ed.) op. cit., For a critical analysis see D. Ó Corráin, 'CCC: History or Propaganda?', ÉRIÚ XXV (1974).


  74. Cogadh, p. 49 and Caithréim, p. 58.


  75. Binchy, op. cit. p. 20 and Ó Corráin, 'Nationality', p. 17.


  76. This is my interpretation of the Vision pp. 43-4.  In the absence of a king in Ormond after the expulsion of the Eóghanacht of Cashel, the Dál Cais had a maer of Ormond to gather their taxes. (AI 1095).


  77. These would have included unfortified dwellings such as the rígraith (Cf. Cogadh p. 205).  Unfortunately, these may now be indistinguishable from other raths.


  78. Note the reference to the 'great forts of Munster' in Caithréim p. 76; anonymous annals 1151; the reference to the forts of Ciarraighe in MIA 1151; and Cogadh reference to the fortification of dúns, fastnesses and islands (p. 141).
    See also D. Ó Corráin, 'Aspects of early Irish History', in B.G. Scott (ed.), Perspectives of Irish archaeology, (Belfast 1974) pp. 68-71.


  79. Cogadh, p. 141.


  80. Ibid. p, 141, and for their identification p. clx.


  81. Among the forts on the Thomond-Desmond border were the forts at Lough Gur, Loch Cend near Knockaney, Kilfinan, Bruree etc.  Dún Coba was located on the borders of Uí Echach and Corca Laoighdhe (Vision p. 42).  The Mac Carthy residences at Lismore and Mahoonagh were also in border regions.
    See also Ó Corráin, 'Aspects', p. 65.


  82. The Anglo-Saxon fortifications (burhs) were built from the late ninth century against Danish agression but they helped to make England the most united kingdom, and its kings the most effective, in all northern Europe.


  83. Ó Corráin, 'Aspects', p. 69.


  84. See Ó Corráin, 'Narionality' pp. 28-9.  The chief ollamh of Ireland had a rerinue of 120 (MIA 1118).  Clearly a great provincial king would have had a far larger retinue.  Churchmen were probably prominent among Diarmaid's courtiers. 'Dermot's Charter'    65 was written by a cleric familiar with English or continental usages.  Other royal charters and documents must have existed but have not survived.


  85. See Caithréim, p. 59.  These retainers appear to have comprised foot-soldiers and household troops.


  86. Vision, pp. 42-6.


  87. Ibid., p. 52.


  88. Cf. the guest table in MIA 1165 (recte 1166).


  89. Vision, p. 46.


  90. A good harvest of apples was considered worthy of notice in the annals -- AI 1109.  In the Vision (p. 52) the king of Munster was very fond of wild apples.


  91. Vision, p. 106.


  92. Ibid., p. 44.


  93. Cf. AI 1165.


  94. Cf. A. Gwynn, The twelfth century reform, (Dublin 1968).


  95. Vision, p. 56.


  96. M.J. Blake (ed), ' An old rental of Cong Abbey', JRSAI XXV (1906) pp. 130-5.


  97. AFM 1157.


  98. Cormac Mac Carthy levied a bell-rope from every ship entering Cork (Rental, p. 135).  Diarmaid must have got the money he needed to pay Raymond le Gros' troops in 1176 from the Viking merchants in Cork.


  99. This wealth is well illustrated by Cormac Mac Carthy's benefactions to the Church -- in the form of treasure, land and monastic buildings.  Cf. Jefferies, loc. cit., pp. 88, 94; and also fn. 65 for 'Dermot's Charter'.


  100. Cogadh, p. 137.


  101. AI 1114.  The entries for the years 1092-1130 were written up in Lismore. (See Mac Airt, p. xxviii.)


  102. Cf. Jefferies, loc. cit., pp. 84-5.


  103. AI 1162.


  104. MIA 1163.


  105. Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica, trans. J. O'Meara, (Suffolk 1982) p. 108.


  106. AI 1164.


  107. AI 1165, 1166 and A. Tig. 1166 (recte 1165).


  108. Ó Corráin, 'Nationality', pp. 16-17.


  109. Ibid., pp. 23-4.


  110. AFM 1130.


  111. See also Vision, p. 149.


  112. K.W. Nicholls, 'Inquisitions of 1224 from the Miscellanea of the Exchequer', Analecta Hibernica XXVII (1972), p. 112.  Also AU 1197.


  113. Cf. D. Ó Corráin, 'Irish regnal succession: a re-appraisal', Studia Hibernica XI, (1971), pp. 7-39.


  114. The O'Donoghues manipulated their genealogies to give themselves an Eóghanacht Loch Léin pedigree and disguise their true origins.  See D. Ó Corráin, 'Later Eóghanacht Pedigrees', JCHAS lxxiv (1969) pp. 142-3.


  115. MIA 1158.  Two important O'Donoghues and Aodh O'Callaghan's son were killed in that encounter.


  116. AI 1161.


  117. In 1161 (A.I.) Domhnall O'Mahony, king of Cenél Béice, died without attaining the kingship of Uí Echach -- but in AI 1170 Cathal O'Donoghue was stated to have been a former king of Uí Echach.
    AI 1163 supports my interpretation that Muirchertach O'Donoghue may have been king of Eóghanacht Locha Léin, but not of Uí Echach.


  118. AI 1163.


  119. AI 1170.


  120. See O'Donoghue aggression against the O'Moriartys in AI 1169, and a rare reference to fortification in AI 1170.


  121. See AI 1178.


  122. MIA 1165 (recte 1166).


  123. A. Tig. 1166.


  124. Ó Corráin, Ireland, p. 167.


  125. A. Tig. 1166.


  126. A. Tig. 1167.


  127. AFM 1167.  Both of these gifts appear to have been among the loot carried off from Turlough O'Brien after the battle of Móin Mór (1151).


  128. AU 1168.


  129. AFM 1170.


  130. MIA 1169 (recte 1170).


  131. AFM 1171.


  132. MIA 1172 (recte 1171).


  133. Giraldus Cambrensis, Expugnatio Hibernica, Trans. & ed. Scott & Martin, (Dublin 1979), p. 93.


  134. This is the only reference in our sources to an Irish king making a formal alliance with the king of England.


  135. J. Barry, 'The Norman invasion of Ireland - a new approach', JCHAS lxxv (1971).


  136. I hope to discuss this in a final paper on Desmond and Anglo-Norman Cork.


  137. For what follows see the Expugnatio p. 137, and MIA 1174 (recte 1173).


  138. MIA 1176 (recte 1175).


  139. This attack is said to have been instigated by Rory O'Connor. A. Tig. 1175.


  140. AI 1175.


  141. Expugnatio p. 165.


  142. AI 1176.


  143. Expugnatio p. 167.


  144. MIA 1176.