Domnall mac Murchada

Domnall mac Murchada (died 1075),

In 1071, the year before his grandfather's death, Domnall and an Uí Chennselaig kinsman,

Domnall's rise to power in the

Domnall was a son of

Even before Diarmait's demise, the Uí Chennselaig began to fight amongst themselves in a struggle that was almost certainly an after-effect of Diarmait's sons' untimely deaths.[17] Specifically, the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters,^[18] and the eleventh- to fourteenth-century Annals of Inisfallen reveal that Domnall battled against the forces of his own first cousin once removed, Donnchad mac Domnaill Remair, before Diarmait's ally, Toirdelbach Ua Briain, King of Munster, was able to intervene and restore order in the Kingdom of Leinster.^[19]

Up until about the time of his death, Diarmait had been the most powerful king in southern Ireland.

Toirdelbach's subsequent capture of Donnchad in Dublin suggests that the latter was not only the leading Uí Chennselaig dynast,

In 1075, Toirdelbach drove Gofraid from the kingship and Ireland itself.[39] There is uncertainty concerning the circumstances of Gofraid's expulsion, and of Domnall's accession.^[40] On one hand, it is possible that Gofraid was involved in lending assistance to Anglo-Danish resistance against the Norman regime in the recently conquered Kingdom of England. If correct, Gofraid would appear to have been at odds with Toirdelbach, a monarch who appears to have cultivated close links with the Norman regime.^[41] Domnall, therefore, may have had Toirdelbach's consent to rule in Dublin as Gofraid's replacement.^[42] In fact, Toirdelbach's placement of Domnall in Dublin, and his allowance of the latter's aforesaid cousin in Leinster, may have been a way in which the Uí Briain exploited the fractured Uí Chennselaig. Certainly, Domnall's cooperation would have been a valuable asset to Toirdelbach, considering the prominence of his father amongst the Dubliners, and the likelihood that Domnall himself may have lived most of his life there.^{[43][note 3]} On the other hand, it is possible that Gofraid was driven from the kingship because he had aligned himself with the Leinstermen against the Uí Briain. If such a sequence of events is correct it could mean that, even though Gofraid was unable continue on with the revolt, it was his Uí Chennselaig confederates who succeeded in securing Dublin from the Uí Briain.^[40]

Whatever the circumstances of Domnall's accession, the Uí Chennselaig regime in Dublin was short-lived. The Annals of Inisfallen, the Annals of the Four Masters, and the fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster, all reveal that, within the year, Domnall died after a brief illness, with the latter two sources specifying that he succumbed after three nights of sickness.^[45] The Annals of Inisfallen and the Annals of Ulster accord him the title King of Dublin, and make no mention of any connection with the Leinster kingship.^[46] Upon Domnall's demise, Toirdelbach had his own son, Muirchertach, appointed King of Dublin.^[47] In so doing, Toirdelbach reinforced his authority in Dublin,^[48] and followed a precedent started by Domnall's grandfather, in which a claimant to the high-kingship of Ireland installed his own heir to the kingship of Dublin.^[49]

Ancestry

Notes