A High King of Ireland (Irish: Ard Rí na hÉireann) is a historical or legendary figure who claimed lordship over the whole of Ireland. Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. The High-Kingship was never a political reality in Ireland, but has a strong literary and folkore tradition.

The meaning of High Kingship

While the traditional list of those bearing the title "High King of Ireland" goes back thousands of years, into the second millennium BC, the earlier parts of the list are largely mythical. It is unclear at what point the list begins to refer to historical individuals, and also at what point these individuals can genuinely be said to be "High Kings" in the later sense of the word.

Most scholars believe that the idea of the High Kingship was a pseudohistorical construct of the eighth century that placed a king of all Ireland atop the fragmented pyramid of kingship which actually existed at that time ^[1][2][3]. Pseudohistory is a term applied to texts which purport to be historical in nature but which depart from standard historiographical conventions in a way which undermines This notion of a high kingship acted as a spur to greater centralisation and was converted into political reality by the middle of the ninth century. High Kingship claims were in the genealogies of many of the dominant septs, but were never a political reality. Until quite recently the development of the pre-Norman kingship of Ireland has been expressed in simplistic terms, with both unionist and nationalist historians happy to portray pre-Norman Ireland as an immutable hierarchy of kings for their own purposes. The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. Unionism in Ireland, is a belief in the desirability of a full constitutional and institutional relationship between Ireland and Great Britain based on the terms and Irish nationalism (Náisiúnachas Éireannach refers to political and sociological movements and sentiment that embodies a love for Irish ancestry, culture and language and In unionist historiography the picture painted has been one of tribal chaos, while that of nationalist historiography has been a Utopian harmony. Modern-day historians reject both of these portrayals as simplistic, presenting a history of Irish kingship that is more complex and parallels the development of national kingship elsewhere in Europe.

Sacral High Kings

High Kings were traditionally installed on the Hill of Tara. The Hill of Tara ( Irish Teamhair na Rí, "Hill of the Kings" located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs The Lia Fáil (pictured) supposedly shouted the rightful king's name when he placed his foot on it. The Lia Fáil ( Irish for Stone of Destiny) is a Standing stone at the Inauguration Mound (an Forrad on the Hill of Tara in County

Early Irish kingship was sacral in character. SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. In the early narrative literature a king is a king because he marries the sovereignty goddess (Medbh), is free from blemish, enforces symbolic buada (prerogatives) and avoids symbolic geasa (taboos). A goddess is a Female Deity. Many Cultures have goddesses Often deities are part of a polytheistic system that includes several deities In Irish mythology and folklore a geis ( plural geasa) is an idiosyncratic Taboo, whether of obligation or prohibition similar to being under A taboo is a strong Social prohibition (or ban) against words objects actions or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group culture According to the seventh and eighth century law tracts a hierarchy of kingship and clientship progressed from the rí (king of a single petty kingdom) through the ruiri (a rí who was overking of several petty kingdoms) to a rí ruirech (a rí who was a provincial overking). The 7th century is the period from 601 to 700 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. The 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. Each king ruled directly only within the bounds of his own petty kingdom and was responsible for ensuring good government by exercising fír flaithemon (rulers truth), convening its óenach (popular assembly), raising taxes, public works, external relations, defence, emergency legislation, law enforcement and promulgating legal judgement. Public works are the construction or engineering projects carried out by the State on behalf of the Community. The lands within the petty kingdom were held allodially by various fine (agnatic kingroups) of freemen with the king occupying the apex of a pyramid of clientship within the petty kingdom (progressing from the unfree population at its base up to the heads of noble fine held in immediate clientship by the king) and so being drawn from the dominant fine within the cenél (a wider kingroup encompassing the noble fine of the petty kingdom). Allodial title is a concept in some systems of property law It describes a situation where Real property ( Land, Buildings and Fixtures) is owned

The kings of the Ulster Cycle are kings in this sacred sense, but it is clear that the old concept of kingship coexisted alongside Christianity for several generations. Texts in translation Most of the important Ulster Cycle tales can be found in the following publications Thomas Kinsella, The Táin, Oxford University Diarmait mac Cerbaill, king of Tara in the middle of the 6th century, may have been the last king to have "married" the land, and indeed there are accounts from the century after Diarmait's death at the hands of Áed Dub mac Suibni which have him killed by the Three-Fold Death - by wounding, by falling from a tree, and by drowning - and Adomnán's Life tells how Saint Columba forecast the same death for Áed Dub. Diarmait mac Cerbaill (died c 565 was King of Tara or High King of Ireland. Áed Dub mac Suibni (died c 588 was an Irish king of the cruithne of Dál nAraidi (in modern Ulster) Saint Adomnán of Iona (627/8 &ndash 704 was Abbot of Iona (679-704 Hagiographer, statesman and clerical lawyer he was the author of the most WikipediaPersondata --> See Columba (disambiguation and St Columb for other uses The same Three-Fold Death is said to have put an end of Diarmait's predecessor, Muirchertach macc Ercae, in a late poem, and even the usually reliably Annals of Ulster record Muirchertach's death by drowning in a vat of wine. The Annals of Ulster ( Annála Uladh) are a Chronicle of medieval Ireland.

A second sign that sacral kingship did not disappear with the arrival of Christianity is the supposed law-suit between Congal Cáech, king of the Ulaid, and Domnall mac Áedo. Congal Cáech (also Congal Cláen) was a king of the cruithne of Dál nAraidi, in modern Ulster, from around 626 to 637 The Ulaid (pron /'ʊləɣ′/ were a people of early north-eastern Ireland, who gave their name to the modern province of Ulster: modern Irish Cúige Domnall mac Áedo (died 642) was a son of Áed mac Ainmuirech. Congal was supposedly blinded in one eye by Domnall's bees, from whence his byname Cáech (half-blind or squinting), this injury rendering him imperfect and unable to remain High King. The enmity between Domnall and Congal can more prosaically be laid at the door of the rivalry between the Uí Néill and the kings of Ulaid, but that a king had to be whole in body appears to have been accepted at this time. The Uí Néill ( Irish for descendants of Niall; Uí pronounced 'Ee') were Irish and Scottish Dynasties who claimed descent from Niall

Succession order

The business of Irish succession is rather complicated because of the nature of kingship in Ireland before the Norman take-over of 1171. Ireland was divided into a multiplicity of kingdoms, with some kings owing allegiance to others from time to time, and succession rules (insofar as they existed) varied. Kings were often succeeded by their sons, but often other branches of the dynasty took a turn - whether by agreement or by force of arms is rarely clear. Unfortunately the king-lists and other early sources reveal little about how and why a particular person became king. To add to the uncertainty, genealogies were often edited many generations later in order to improve an ancestor's standing within a kingdom, or to insert him into a more powerful kindred. The uncertain practices in local kingship cause similar problems when interpreting the succession to the high kingship.

The High King of Ireland was essentially a ceremonial, pseudo-federal overlord (where his over-lordship was even recognised), who exercised actual power only within the realm of which he was actually king. In the case of the southern branch of the Uí Neill, this would have been the Kingdom of Meath (now the counties of Meath, Westmeath and part of County Dublin). High Kings from the northern branch ruled various kingdoms in what eventually became the province of Ulster.

Nevertheless, the Uí Neill were apparently powerful in ceremony if not in politic, so that political unification of Ireland was not aided by the usurpation of the high kingship from Mael Sechnaill II and the southern Uí Niall in 1002 by Briain ‘Boruma’ mac Cennédig, of the Kingdom of Munster. This was the third of the so-called "Three Usurpations of Brian Boru. Brian mac Cennétig, called Brian Bóruma, ( c 941&ndash23 April 1014 (Brian Boru Brian Bóraimhe was an Irish king who ended the centuries-long domination "

Brian Boru was a strong king who could have unified Ireland politically, and there is some suggestion he intended to make himself High King of Scotland as well. But he was killed in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, and twelve years as High King was not long enough to unify the island politically. Mael Sechnaill II was restored to the High Kingship but he died in 1022, too soon to undo the damage done by Brian's "coup. " From 1022 through the Norman take-over of 1171, the High Kingship was held alongside "Kings with Opposition".

Because the native Irish high kingship never adopted any set of rules for succession, be they based on primogeniture or any other system, there can be no realistic pretender to an Irish 'throne', and modern claims cannot be taken seriously. A pretender is a claimant to an abolished throne or to a throne already occupied by somebody else Alternatively, given the great number of Irish kings in the early Middle Ages, it is scarcely possible to believe that there is one person of Irish descent today who does not also have kingly blood -- given the lack of rules of succession and the contrived genealogies of the time, all Irish males might lay claim to a kingship of one sort or another.

Early Christian High Kings

Even at the time the law tracts were being written these petty kingdoms were being swept away by newly emerging dynasties of dynamic overkings. The most successful of these early dynasties were the Uí Néill (encompassing descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages such as the Cenel Eoghain) who as kings of Tara had been conquering petty kingdoms, expelling their rulers and agglomerating their territories under the direct rule of their expanding kindred since the fifth century. Niall Noígíallach ( Old Irish "having nine Hostages quot pronounced /niː'əl noɪ'jiːəlax/ was an Irish king the Eponymous ancestor The Hill of Tara ( Irish Teamhair na Rí, "Hill of the Kings" located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs Native and foreign, pagan and Christian ideas were comingled to form a new idea of Irish kingship. The native idea of a sacred kingship was integrated with the Christian idea in the ceremony of coronation, the relationship of king to overking became one of tigerna (lord) to king and imperium (sovereignty) began to merge with dominium (ownership). A coronation is a ceremony marking the investiture of a Monarch with regal power specifically involving the placement of a crown upon his or her head and the Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself The church was well disposed to the idea of a strong political authority. Its clerics developed the theory of a high kingship of Ireland and wrote tracts exhorting kings to rule rather than reign. In return the paruchiae (monastic federations) of the Irish church received royal patronage in the form of shrines, building works, land and protection. The concept of a high king was occasionally recorded in various annals, such as an entry regarding the death of Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid in 862 in the Annals of Ulster which lists him as rí Érenn uile (king of all Ireland), a title which his successor, Aed Finliath apparently never was granted. Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid (died 27 November 862) was High King of Ireland. Áed mac Neíll (died 879 called Áed Findliath (Áed the Fair Warrior to distinguish him from his paternal grandfather Áed Oirdnide, was King of Ailech It is unclear what political reality was behind this title. ^[4]

Later High Kings

By the twelfth century the dual process of agglomeration of territory and consolidation of kingship saw the handful of remaining provincial kings abandoning the traditional royal sites for the cities, employing ministers and governors, receiving advice from an oireacht (a body of noble counsellors), presiding at reforming synods and maintaining standing armies. Early royal succession had been by alternation between collateral branches of the wider dynasty but succession was now confined to a series of father/son, brother/brother and uncle/nephew successions within a small royal fine marked by an exclusive surname. A surname is a name added to a Given name and is part of a Personal name. These compact families (O Brien of Munster, MacLochlainn of the North, O Connor of Connacht) intermarried and competed against each other on a national basis so that on the eve of the Anglo-Norman incursion of 1169 we find the agglomeration/consolidation process complete and their provincial kingdoms divided, dismembered and transformed into fiefdoms held from (or in rebellion against) one of their number acting as king of Ireland. The later medieval period in Ireland (" Norman Ireland " was dominated by the Cambro-Norman invasion of the country in 1171.

See also

• List of High Kings of Ireland
• King of Ireland
• King of Scots

Notes

References

• Lebor Gabála Érenn
• Geoghegan Clan
• O'Neill
• John Francis Byrne, 1973, Irish Kings and High Kings, Dublin
• Annals of the Four Masters
• Geoffrey Keating, 1636, Foras Feasa ar Eirenn
• High King Niall: the most fertile man in Ireland,
• The Times Online, The Times, 15th. Lebor Gabála Érenn ( The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of Poems and Prose narratives Annals of the Four Masters AD432 entryjpg|thumb|right|Entry for A Seathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was a 17th century Irish Roman Catholic priest Poet and Historian The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. January, 2006
• Laoise T. Moore et al,
• A Y-Chromosome Signature of Hegemony in Gaelic Ireland Am. J. Hum. Genet. , 78:334-338, 2006

External links

• Nationality and Kingship in Pre-Norman Ireland by Prof. Donnchadh Ó Corráin, University College Cork