Ruaidrí ua Canannáin

Ruaidrí ua Canannáin (died 30 November 950) was king of the

Cenél Conaill, and according to some sources, High King of Ireland

The Cenél Conaill, a branch of the northern

kings of Mide since the early the 8th century. Ruaidrí was a descendant in the seventh generation of the previous Cenél Conaill High King, Flaithbertach mac Loingsig

.

In the period before Ruaidrí ua Canannáin rose to prominence, the Cenél nEógain heir apparent to the High Kingship, Muirchertach mac Néill, was killed in battle in 943, while the High King, Donnchad Donn of Clann Cholmáin, died the following year. The deaths of Muirchertach and Donnchad appear to have left the field open to less likely competitors. The Uí Néill king lists make Congalach Cnogba of the southern Síl nÁedo Sláine, a kin group long excluded from the succession, Donnchad's successor. Congalach was Donnchad's sister's son. However, Donnchad's apparent policy of making strategic marriages to rising families also made Ruaidrí his kinsman. His aunt, Cainnech ingen Canannáin (d. 929), had been Donnchad's first wife.

Ruaidrí, whose home base was in the south of modern

Brian Bóruma. The form of the Prophecy of Berchán makes identifying the subjects, who are referred to by often obscure epithets rather than names, sometimes difficult. In the case of Ruaidrí ua Canannáin, the identification is obvious:

After that a king from the North takes sovereignty...; Red [ruad] will be the name of that king (rí

), he puts Ireland into anxiety.

The record shows both men active in the midlands of Ireland. Men of Ruaidrí's were killed by Congalach and

King of Dublin, and set up camp, probably somewhere between Donaghpatrick and Kells, from which he raided Brega and Meath. According to the Annals of Ulster, his army defeated an attack by the foreigners of Dublin on his camp on 30 November 950, but Ruaidrí himself was killed in the fight along with his son Niall. At his death he is called "heir designate of Ireland" by the Annals of Ulster, the same title as was used of Muirchertach at his death in 943. The Prophecy of Berchán, apparently following a different tradition, has Ruaidrí killed by a Leinsterman

.

Ruaidrí's reign was the high point of Ua Canannáin power. In the years following his death various of his kinsmen were killed by Congalach and Cenél nÉogain, and these deaths, together with the rising power of their Ua Máel Doraid kinsmen largely excluded the Ua Canannáin even from the kingship of Cenél Conaill.