Mullinabreena

The Battle of Cunghill, 1087

In 1087, a battle was fought at Cunghill between Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht, and Áed son of Art Ua Ruairc. Ruaidrí was victorious. Áed was killed together with several prominent figures of the Conmaicne.

The battle appears in several Irish annals. The Annals of Ulster record an encounter in Corann between Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair and Áed Ua Ruairc in which Áed and the nobles of the Conmaicne fell. The Annals of Inisfallen preserve a shorter notice, while the Annals of Tigernach, Chronicon Scotorum and the later Annals of the Four Masters provide further detail.

Chronicon Scotorum records:

“The battle of Conacla, i.e. in Corann, won by Ruaidrí ua Conchobuir and Cormac ua Cillín … when it was being fought between the Connachta and the Conmaicne, and the Conmaicne were defeated.”

Among the dead were Áed Ua Ruairc, Muiredach Ua Eolais, Sitric son of Cú Slébe Ua Fergail and a son of Gafraidh Ua Siridén. The Four Masters likewise place the battle at Conachail in Corann, describing Áed as lord of Conmaicne and Bréifne and identifying Muiredach Mac Duibh as chief of Muintir Eolais.

Conacla or Conachail has long been identified with modern Cunghill, in the parish of Achonry. Terence O’Rorke described the townland beyond Templehouse on the road towards Tubbercurry as “the scene of a famous battle”, while William Gregory Wood-Martin also identified Conachail with Cunghill. Although Cunghill later lay within the barony of Leyny, O’Rorke noted that medieval Corann extended farther west and included places subsequently regarded as part of Leyny, including Cunghill and Killoran.

P. W. Joyce provides further place-name evidence, noting that Cunghill appears as Conachail in the Four Masters. He was less certain about the ultimate derivation of the name, but the identification of the medieval battlefield with the modern townland was already well established.

The battle at Cunghill was not simply a local dispute. Ruaidrí and Áed belonged to rival dynastic lines with claims to authority in Connacht. The Annals of Tigernach even describe Áed as king of Connacht. The events of 1087 therefore belonged to a struggle for provincial supremacy that had already lasted for decades and which, for Ruaidrí, had a particularly personal history.

The Struggle for Connacht

The struggle behind Cunghill stretched back well before 1087. During the eleventh century the kingship of Connacht was contested between rival branches of the Uí Briúin, particularly the Ua Conchobair of Síl Muiredaig and the Ua Ruairc dynasty of Bréifne.

The Ua Ruairc were not outsiders to the provincial kingship. Áed’s father, Art Uallach Ua Ruairc, had himself ruled Connacht during the first half of the century. Competition between the two dynasties was therefore not simply a matter of Bréifne pressing westwards, but of rival families claiming supremacy over the province.

Corann had already figured in that rivalry. In 1047 Niall Ua Ruairc was killed there by the Ua Conchobair. Ten years later Áed in Gaí Bernaig Ua Conchobair plundered and devastated Luighne.

A more direct connection with Cunghill came in 1067, when Áed son of Art Ua Ruairc defeated and killed Áed in Gaí Bernaig Ua Conchobair, Ruaidrí’s father. Twenty years later Ruaidrí would face the same man at Cunghill. The annals do not describe the battle as revenge, but the earlier killing gave the confrontation an unmistakable dynastic dimension.

The balance shifted again in 1084 when Donnchad Ua Ruairc, described as king of eastern Connacht, was killed at Móin Cruinneóige during conflict involving Muirchertach Ua Briain. By 1087 Ruaidrí was in a position to challenge Áed directly.

The annals themselves reflect the uncertainty surrounding Áed’s position. He is described variously as king of the Conmaicne, lord of Conmaicne and Bréifne, and, in the Annals of Tigernach, king of Connacht. These differing titles are best understood against a background in which provincial authority was contested rather than fixed.

The men who died with Áed show that his support was not confined to his immediate Ua Ruairc following.

The Conmaicne at Cunghill

Chronicon Scotorum describes the battle as one fought “between the Connachta and the Conmaicne”, and the casualty list gives some indication of the breadth of Áed Ua Ruairc’s following.

The Conmaicne were not a single territorial kingdom. By the eleventh century, groups bearing the name occupied a number of territories across the west and midlands of Ireland.

One of the principal casualties at Cunghill was Muiredach Ua Eolais, identified by the Four Masters as Muiredach Mac Duibh, chief of Muintir Eolais. Their territory was centred principally in what is now southern County Leitrim and belonged to the wider Conmaicne Réin. Muiredach was therefore a territorial ruler in his own right.

He may also appear in the annals two years earlier. In 1085, during an attack on Muintir Eolais by Toirdelbach Ua Briain, a Muiredach associated with the territory was taken prisoner. If this was the same man, as seems likely, it places him within the wider political struggles of the period immediately before Cunghill.

Another casualty was Sitric, son of Cú Slébe Ua Fergail. Cú Slébe is independently associated with Muintir Angaile, the Conmaicne territory corresponding broadly to later Annaly in the Longford region. Sitric’s presence therefore shows that men fighting alongside Áed had come from considerably farther south and east than Bréifne itself.

The annals also record the death of a son of Gafraidh Ua Siridén. His precise territorial affiliation remains uncertain and should not be reconstructed from the battle notice alone.

The Four Masters add that other distinguished Conmaicne, “both noble and plebeian”, were killed. No source gives the size of either army, but the named dead are enough to show that Áed’s force included prominent men from more than one Conmaicne territory.

These relationships need not have formed a permanent alliance. Political loyalties among the Ua Ruairc and the different Conmaicne groups could change rapidly, as the aftermath of Cunghill would show.

Much less is known about Ruaidrí’s following. No local dynasty can securely be placed on his side from the surviving accounts. One figure, however, is explicitly associated with his victory: Cormac Ua Cillín, who appeared at the battle carrying the Staff of St Ciarán.

Cormac Ua Cillín and the Staff of St Ciarán

The most unusual figure named at Cunghill is the ecclesiastic Cormac Ua Cillín. Chronicon Scotorum associates him directly with Ruaidrí’s victory and records that, while the battle was being fought, he held the Staff of St Ciarán.

Cormac is described as ardsecnab Síl Muiredaig. The title secnab, usually translated as “vice-abbot”, denoted a substantial ecclesiastical office. More importantly, Cormac’s office was specifically associated with Síl Muiredaig, the dynastic group to which Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair belonged.

His connection with Clonmacnoise is explicit in the notice of his death in 1106, when Chronicon Scotorum calls him chief vice-abbot of Síl Muiredaig and superior of the guest-house of Clonmacnoise. His presence at Cunghill therefore belongs within a wider relationship between Clonmacnoise and the political world of Síl Muiredaig.

That relationship was not confined to Cormac. Tigernach Ua Bráein, abbot of Clonmacnoise at the time of the battle and the ecclesiastic traditionally associated with the Annals of Tigernach, was himself of Síl Muiredaig.

The object Cormac carried is equally significant. St Ciarán was the founder and principal saint of Clonmacnoise, and relics associated with major saints could represent both the saint and the ecclesiastical community that possessed them. Such objects appear in medieval Ireland in political, legal and occasionally military settings.

A crozier of Ciarán was already famous long before Cunghill. Under the year 930, the Four Masters record that “the crozier of Ciarán, i.e. the Oraineach” was lost in Loch Techet, identified with Lough Gara, together with twelve men, before being recovered. A distinguished relic associated with Ciarán was therefore being carried beyond Clonmacnoise more than a century and a half before the battle.

Whether the Oraineach of 930 was the same physical object carried by Cormac in 1087 cannot be established. Nor can either reference be securely connected with the surviving medieval Clonmacnoise Crozier, although that object provides a useful visual parallel for the type of prestigious ecclesiastical relic described in the annals.

Relations between Clonmacnoise and the Conmaicne had not always been peaceful. In 1044 the Conmaicne plundered Clonmacnoise, and the annals describe severe consequences imposed upon them afterwards. The episode provides a notable background to the appearance of Ciarán’s staff opposite a Conmaicne force forty-three years later, but there is no evidence that Cunghill was fought as revenge for the earlier attack.

Nor does Chronicon Scotorum tell us that Cormac personally fought, or that the staff formally conferred or legitimised Ruaidrí’s kingship. What it does tell us is striking enough: the victory is attributed to Ruaidrí and Cormac, and the presence of Ciarán’s staff was considered worth recording.

Cormac and the relic of Clonmacnoise’s founding saint were therefore part of how the battle was remembered within the Clonmacnoise annalistic tradition.

The Battlefield at Cunghill

Although the annals identify the battlefield as Cunghill, they say nothing about how the opposing forces reached the site or how the fighting unfolded. The landscape can provide some context, but it cannot reconstruct the battle itself.

Cunghill occupies relatively elevated ground overlooking the Templehouse basin. To the east and southeast lies lower ground shaped by lakes, waterways and wetlands associated with Templehouse and the Owenmore system. Their extent will have changed over the centuries, and their precise condition in 1087 cannot now be established. The underlying topography, however, would have influenced movement through the district.

The origins of some of those killed with Áed Ua Ruairc provide a possible clue to the direction from which parts of his force arrived. Muiredach Ua Eolais came from Muintir Eolais in what is now southern County Leitrim, while Sitric son of Cú Slébe Ua Fergail was connected with Muintir Angaile in the Longford region. An approach from the east or southeast is therefore plausible, although no route is recorded.

Cunghill’s higher ground may also have influenced where the armies met, but we cannot determine which force arrived first, whether the site was deliberately chosen, or whether either side gained a tactical advantage from the terrain. The ringforts, souterrain and other earthworks in the townland belong to its earlier settlement landscape and cannot presently be connected with the battle. O’Rorke’s suggestion that some might have served as military entrenchments remains unsupported archaeologically.

The size of the forces, their formations and the sequence of the fighting are unknown. What survives more clearly is the result: Áed Ua Ruairc and several prominent Conmaicne figures fighting alongside him were killed, and Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair was victorious.

Aftermath and Significance

Cunghill left Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair in a strong position. Áed Ua Ruairc was dead, several leading Conmaicne figures had fallen with him, and Ruaidrí exercised effective authority in Connacht during the years that followed.

In 1088 he opposed the expanding power of Muirchertach Ua Briain and later joined Domnall Mac Lochlainn in campaigning against Munster. Two years later he was among the principal rulers present at a meeting involving Mac Lochlainn, Ua Briain and Domnall Ua Máelshechlainn.

His ascendancy did not last. In 1092 Ruaidrí was blinded through the treachery of Flaithbertach Ua Flaithbertaig and Fogartach Ua Fogartaig, ending his active kingship. The Conmaicne soon raided Síl Muiredaig, and in 1093 Niall, a son of Ruaidrí, was killed by them.

The Ua Ruairc also recovered quickly. In 1095 Domnall mac Tigernáin Ua Ruairc submitted to Muirchertach Ua Briain and was given authority over much of Connacht, though Uí Fiachrach, Uí Maine and Luighne were excluded. In the same year Taichleach Ua hEaghra, lord of Luighne, was killed with many of the Luighne by three Conmaicne groups. There is no evidence that this attack was a consequence of Cunghill, but it shows how unsettled the region remained.

Ua Ruairc claims to provincial rule survived into the next generation. In 1101 Donnchad son of Art Ua Ruairc was described as lord of Conmaicne and rígdhamna Connacht, an eligible claimant to the kingship. The following year Domnall Ua Ruairc was remembered as having ruled “all Connacht for a time”. He was eventually killed by the Conmaicne themselves, with the Annals of Tigernach identifying Muintir Eolais among those responsible.

O’Rorke believed that Cunghill had effectively decided the rivalry between the Ua Conchobair and Ua Ruairc in favour of the former. Seen from 1087, that conclusion is understandable. Ruaidrí had killed the man who had slain his father, removed a serious rival and inflicted heavy losses on those fighting alongside him.

The subsequent record shows, however, that Cunghill did not settle the struggle permanently. The battle of Cunghill secured Ruaidrí’s supremacy at a critical moment, but neither Ua Ruairc ambitions nor Conmaicne power disappeared. The struggle for Connacht continued.

Conclusion

The Battle of Cunghill brought together several strands of eleventh-century Connacht politics. Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair defeated and killed Áed Ua Ruairc, the man responsible for his father’s death twenty years earlier, while prominent men from different Conmaicne territories also fell.

The presence of Cormac Ua Cillín carrying the Staff of St Ciarán adds another dimension, revealing the ecclesiastical relationships that accompanied secular politics. Yet for all the detail preserved by the annals, much about the battle itself remains unknown: the numbers involved, the routes taken and the course of the fighting.

Cunghill gave Ruaidrí a decisive victory, but not a permanent settlement. Within five years he had been blinded, and both the Ua Ruairc and the Conmaicne soon returned as major political forces.

In 1087, dynastic rivalry, territorial power and ecclesiastical authority converged in what is today the townland of Cunghill, in the parish of Achonry.

Sources and References

Primary Sources

• Annals of Inisfallen, s.a. 1087.

• Annals of Loch Cé, s.a. 1087.

• Annals of Tigernach, s.a. 1044, 1087, 1095, 1102.

• Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1087.

• Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 930, 1044, 1047, 1057, 1067, 1084–87, 1092–95, 1101–02.

• Chronicon Scotorum, s.a. 1087, 1102, 1106.

Secondary Sources

• Joyce, P. W., The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places.

• Lucas, A. T., “The Social Role of Relics and Reliquaries in Ancient Ireland”, JRSAI 116 (1986), 5–37.

• O’Rorke, Terence, The History of Sligo: Town and County, vol. I, especially pp. 75, 120–21.

• Wood-Martin, W. G., History of Sligo, County and Town, vol. I, especially pp. 166–67.