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38 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
province to pay to the Ard-Rí or High King at Tara, every alternate year henceforth, the Borumha, the Boromean Tribute of five thousand cows, five thousand hogs, five thousand cloaks, five thousand vessels of brass or bronze, and five thousand ounces of silver.
Aerial view of Tara from old postcard
The enforcing of the tribute on unwilling Leinster drenched that Province, and some- times the entire country in blood and lasted until 680 A.D. Tuathal’s grandson, Conn Céad Cathach, ‘Conn of the Hundred Battles,’ was another of the powerful and noted early Kings of Connaught. Conn had a serious rival in Eoghan Mór ‘Big Eoin’ or ‘Moh Nuad’ as he is sometimes called, the son of the King of Munster. This Eoghan is said to have married Beare, a Spanish princess, and to have had the assistance of Spanish troops in his struggles with Conn.
In any case an agreement was finally come to. Conn was to have the northern half of the island-Leath Chuinn, ‘Conn’s Half’, while Eoghan was to have the southern half, Leath Mhodha, ‘Moh’s Half’. The dividing line ran from Dublin, by Clonmacnoise, to Galway Bay. The arrangement, however, did not last long and some authorities doubt if it was ever made at all.
Since the time of Tuathal and Conn it seems to have been the ambition of the Kings of Connacht to make themselves kings of all Ireland. Cormac Mac Airt, ‘Cormac Son of Art’ or Cormac Ua Cuinn, ‘Cormac Grandson of Conn’, and King of Connacht from 227-266 A.D. a wise and brilliant monarch, did much to fulfill this ambition, and succeeded in conquering what was still left of the Northern Fifth of Leinster. This territory included Tara, the royal residence of the conquered province where Cormac established himself.
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