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136 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
After the fall of the great Brian Boru at the Battle of Clontarf, in 1014, there was, for a short while, a restoration of the old order in Ireland. Malachy 11, whom Brian had deposed in 1002, again assumed the High-Kingship, and ruled, one annalist said ‘with justice, un- selfishness and vigour,’ until his death, on one of the islands in Lough Ennel, near present Mullingar, county Westmeath, in the year 1022. Malachy was the last undisputed High King of Ireland, or the last High King ‘without opposition’ and with him ended forever the Uí Néill succession.
As Brian Boru had already set the example of successful usurpation, it is no surprise to learn that from Malachy’s death until the Anglo-Norman Invasion-a space of about a cen- tury and a half, eight ‘kings with opposition’ endeavoured to reign.
To try to describe in any detail the bewildering contests that accompanied the many attempts of these eight princes to gain the sovereign power of Ireland, would take up too much time and space, consequently, we will touch on them briefly, bearing in mind that one ancient chronicler when referring to these individuals recorded ‘Brian Boru had many imitators but none equal.’
Following Malachy’s death there was an interregnum of twenty years, during which time the country was ruled by two men-one Conn O’ Lochan, the other Corcran the Cleric. “Af- ter Malachy’s death,” writes the old Annalist of Clonmacnoise, “this kingdom was without a king for 20 years during which time the realm was governed by two learned men; the one called Con O Lochan, a well learned temporal man, and chief poet of Ireland; the other Corcran Claireach, a devout holy man that was anchorite of all Ireland, whose most abiding was at Lismore. The land was governed like a free state, and not like a monarchy by them.”
Three members of the O’Brien family-Donogh, younger son of Brian Boru, Turlough, grandson of Brian, and Turlough’s son Murkertagh-assisted by a Leinster prince, Diarmuid Mael na mBó-‘Dermot ‘the Bald or Steward of the Cattle’, were ‘the kings with opposition,’ in the latter part of the eleventh and early part of the twelfth century. After Murkertagh came the short reign of Donal O’Loughlin who died in 1121. Turlough O Connor, head of the O’ Connors of Connacht, next acquired the disputed sovereignty-the first King of Connacht to do so since the Battle of Ocha in 483. During his time, the famous Cross of Cong was made to his order, to be presented to the Bishop of Tuam. The O’ Connor power was temporarily overthrown by yet another O’ Loughlin, whose death in 1166 brings us to the last of the ‘Milesian Monarchs,’ as he was called, the weak and vacillating , Ruaidhri/ RoryO Connor. As the Anglo-Norman Invasion took place during Rory’s reign, more re-