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Flann Sinna mac Maíl Sechnaill (died 916), was the son of Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid of Clann Cholmáin, a southern branch of the Uí Néill. He was king of Mide from 877 onwards, following Donnchad mac Eochocain. Image File history File links Crystal_128_clock. ... Clann Cholmáin is the name of the kindred or descendants of Colmán Már (Colmán Már mac Diarmato), son of Diarmait mac Cerbaill. ... The Uí Néill (Irish for descendants of Niall Uí pronounced Ee: ) were an Irish dynasty who claimed descent from Niall Noigiallach (Niall of the Nine Hostages), a semi-historical High King of Ireland who died about 405. ... In medieval Ireland, the Kings of Mide were of the Clann Cholmain, a branch of the Uí Néill. ...

As with many Uí Néill kings, Flann Sinna is included in in the lists of fictional High Kings in works such as the Annals of the Four Masters. Unlike the great majority of kings of Temair, Flann Sinna can be counted as king of Ireland (Old Irish ri Éirenn; king of the Irish) in fact as well as myth. The High Kingship of Ireland was a pseudohistorical construct of the eighth century AD, a projection into the distant past of a political entity that did not become reality until the ninth century. ... Signature page from the Annals of the Four Masters Entry for A.D. 432 The Annals of the Four Masters or the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters are a chronicle of medieval Irish history. ... Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language which can be, more or less, fully reconstructed from extant sources. ...

Feidlimid mac Cremthanin and Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid

The makings of an Uí Néill kingship of Ireland, of the sort that later kings such as Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig (Brian Boru), Muircheartach Ua Briain and and Tairrdelbach mac Ruaidri Ua Conchobair exercised, may owe as much to the threat raised by Feidlimid mac Cremthanin, of the Eóganachta of Cashel (Eóganacht Chaisil), King of Munster, as to the Viking raids on Ireland. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Muircheartach Ua Briain was a high king of Ireland (1101-1118 AD). ... Tairrdelbach mac Ruaidri Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht, born 1088, died 1156. ... Feidlimind Mac Cremthanin was the King of Cashel or Munster between 820 and 846. ... The Eóganachta (or Eoghanachta), by tradition founded by Eógan, king of Munster, was an Irish dynasty centred around Cashel which dominated southern Ireland from the 5th to the 16th century. ... Cashel (An Caisleán in Irish, meaning the castle) is a town in County Tipperary, in the southern midlands of Ireland. ... The name is derived from the Gaelic Goddess, Muman. ... The term Viking is used to denote the ship-borne explorers, traders and warriors who originated in Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden and raided the coasts of the British Isles and other parts of Europe from the late 8th century to the 11th century. ...

Feidlimid's Munstermen ravaged the length and breadth of Ireland, as far north as the Cenél nEógan heartland of Innishowen. With the support of the clergy of Cashel as well as his military might, Feidlimid made himself King of Tara. Although he was killed in 841 in battle with Niall Caille mac Áeda of the Cenél nEógan, the High King according to some, Feidlimid's achievements were exceptional. Not since Congal Cáech of the Dál nAraidi, King of Ulaid in the early 7th century, had any king but an Uí Néill been reckoned King of Tara. Cenél nEógan (in English, Cenel Eogan)is the name of the kindred or descendants of Eógan, son of Niall Noígiallach who founded the kingdom of Tír Eógan in the 5th century. ... Congal Cáech (also Congal Cláen) was a king of the cruithne of Dál nAraidi, in modern Ulster, from around 626 to 637. ... Dál nAraidi (sometimes anglicised as Dalaradia — which should not be confused with Dalriada) was a kingdom of the Cruithne in the north-east of Ireland in the first millennium. ... The Ulaid, also known as the Ulaidh and the Ulad, are a people of Early Ireland who gave their name to the Irish Province of Ulster. ...

On Niall Caille's death in 846, the kingship of Tara passed to Flann Sinna's father Máel Sechnaill. Feidlimid died the following year, and Máel Sechnaill proceeded to expand his power by armed might and by diplomacy. However, what is noteworthy about Máel Sechnaill's expansionism, normal for Irish kings, is not that it happened, but the language used to describe it. The Annals of Ulster refer to Máel Sechnaill's armies, not with the men of Mide, or of the Clann Cholmáin, but as the men of Ireland (an expedition co feraib Érenn is recorded in 858). Alongside this innovation, the terms goídil (gael), gaill (foreigners) and gallgoídil (Norse-Gaels) become more common, along with phrases such as the Gaíll Érenn (confusingly, the foreigners of Ireland, used to refer to the Norse-Gaels of the Irish coasts). The Gaels are an ethno-linguistic group in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, whose language is one that is Gaelic (Goidelic), a division of Insular Celtic languages. ... The Norse-Gaels were a people who dominated much of the Irish Sea region and western Scotland for a large part of the Middle Ages, whose aristocracy were mainly of Scandinavian origin, but as a whole exhibited a great deal of Gaelic and Norse cultural syncretism. ...

On his death in 862, Máel Sechnaill's obituary reported him as rí hÉrenn uile (king of all Ireland). That this was a contemporary claim, not a later interpretation, can be seen from the High Crosses erected on Máel Sechnaill's orders which name him rí Érenn. High Cross, Dysert, Co. ...

Notes

References

• Byrne, Francis John, Irish Kings and High-Kings. Batsford, London, 1973. ISBN 0-7134-5882-8
• Herbert, Máire, "Ri Éirenn, Ri Alban: kingship and identity in the ninth and tenth centuries" in Simon Taylor (ed.), Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland 500–1297. Fourt Courts, Dublin, 2000. ISBN 1-85182-516-9
• Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, Early Medieval Ireland: 400–1200. Longman, London, 1995. ISBN 0-582-01565-0

External links

• CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork The Corpus of Electronic Texts includes the Annals of Ulster, Tigernach, Innisfallen and the Four Masters as well as Genealogies, and various Saints' Lives. Most are translated into English, or translations are in progress

See also

• Southern Uí Néill