Flann Sinna

Flann Sinna ( lit. ''Flann of the Shannon''; Irish: ''Flann na Sionainne''; 84725 May 916), also known as Flann mac Máel Sechnaill, was the son of Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid of Clann Cholmáin, a branch of the Southern Uí Néill. He was King of Mide from 877 onwards and a High King of Ireland. His mother Land ingen Dúngaile was a sister of Cerball mac Dúnlainge, King of Osraige.

Flann was chosen as the High King of Ireland, also known as King of Tara, following the death of his first cousin and stepfather Áed Findliath on 20 November 879. Flann's reign followed the usual pattern of Irish High Kings, beginning by levying hostages and tribute from Leinster and then to wars with Munster, Ulster and Connacht. Flann was more successful than most kings of Ireland. However, rather than the military and diplomatic successes of his reign, it is his propaganda statements, in the form of monumental high crosses naming him and his father as kings of Ireland, that are exceptional.

Flann may have had the intention of abandoning the traditional succession to the kingship of Tara, whereby the northern and southern branches of the Uí Néill held the kingship alternately, but such plans were thwarted when his favoured son Óengus was killed by his son-in-law and eventual successor Niall Glúndub, son of Áed Findliath, on 7 February 915. Flann's other sons revolted and his authority collapsed.

Ireland in the First Viking Age

The Viking Age in Ireland began in 795 with attacks on monasteries on the islands of Rathlin, Inishmurray, and Inishbofin. In the following twenty years, raids by Vikings—called "Foreigners" or "Gentiles" in Irish sources—were small in scale, infrequent and largely limited to the coasts. The ''Annals of Ulster'' record raids in Ireland in only five of the first twenty years of the 9th century. In the 820s, there are records of larger raids in Ulster and Leinster. The range, size, and frequency of attacks increased in the 830s. In 837, Viking fleets operated on the rivers Boyne and Liffey in central Ireland, and in 839 a fleet was based on Lough Neagh in the north-east.

The records indicate that the first permanent Viking bases were established in 841, near Dublin and Annagassan. Other fortified settlements were established in the following decades at Wexford, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork. It is in this period that the leaders of the Irish-based Scandinavians are recorded by name. Turgesius, who is made the conqueror of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis and a son of Harald Fairhair by Scandinavian sagas, is one of these. He was captured, and drowned in Lough Owel, by Máel Sechnaill in 845. Máel Sechnaill was reported to have killed 700 Foreigners in 848, and the King of Munster, Ólchobar mac Cináeda, killed 200 more, including an earl named Tomrair, the "heir designate of the King of Laithlind".

In 849 a new force appeared, the " Dark Foreigners". Possibly Danes, their activities were directed against the "Foreigners" already in Ireland. A major naval battle fought in Carlingford Lough in 853 produced a victory for the newcomers. In the same year, there arrived another force, the "Fair Foreigners", led by Amlaíb, "son of the king of Laithlind", and Ímar. From the 840s onwards, the ''Fragmentary Annals of Ireland'' and the Irish annals recount frequent alliances between the "Foreigners" and Irish kings, especially after the appearance of Amlaíb and Ímar as rulers of Dublin.

The later 860s saw a reduction of activity by the Foreigners—although the Annals indignantly report that they plundered the ancient burial mounds at Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth in 863—with the Dublin forces active in Pictland and in the six months' siege of Dumbarton Rock. Áed Findliath took advantage of these absences to destroy the Viking fortresses in the north of Ireland. Amlaíb left Ireland for good in 871 and Ímar died in 873. With their disappearance, there were frequent changes of leadership among the Foreigners and a great deal of internecine conflict is reported for the following decades.

Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid

The making of a kingship of Ireland, as kings from Flann to Brian Bóruma, Muircheartach Ua Briain and Tairrdelbach mac Ruaidri Ua Conchobair (Turlough O'Connor) exercised, may owe as much to the threat raised by Feidlimid mac Crimthainn, of the Eóganachta of Cashel (''Eóganachta Chaisil''), King of Munster, as to the Viking raids on Ireland.

Feidlimid's Munstermen ravaged the length and breadth of Ireland, as far north as the Cenél nEógain heartland of Inishowen. Drawing on the support of the clergy of Cashel as well as his own military might, Feidlimid is said by Munster sources to have made himself King of Tara. Although he was defeated in 841 in battle with Niall Caille of the Cenél nEógain, 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 one been reckoned King of Tara in any account.

On Niall Caille's death in 846, the kingship of Tara passed to Flann Sinna's father Máel Sechnaill. Feidlimid died in the following year, and Máel Sechnaill proceeded to expand his power by war and diplomacy. 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 as 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'' (the foreigners of Ireland, used to refer to the Norse-Gaels of the Irish coasts).

On his death in 862, Máel Sechnaill's obituary titled him "King of all Ireland" ( sga, rí hÉrenn uile).

Áed Finnliath

On Máel Sechnaill's death, the Uí Néill kingship passed back to the northern branch, represented by Áed Findliath, son of Niall Caille. Áed began his reign by marrying Máel Sechnaill's widow, Flann's mother, Land (d. 890), daughter of Dúngal mac Cerbaill, king of Osraige. Áed had some notable successes against the Vikings, and was active against the Laigin. However, his kingship was not accepted even among the southern Uí Néill. The historical records indicate that six times during his reign, or one year in three, the great Fair of Tailtiu

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