Conchobar mac Donnchada (or Conchobar mac Donnchado) was High-King of Ireland with opposition ('' rí Érenn co fressabra'') between

819 __NOTOC__ Year 819 (Roman numerals, DCCCXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Emperor Louis the Pious, Louis I marries Judith ...

and 833. Conchobar was the son of

Donnchad Midi Donnchad mac Domnaill (733 – 6 February 797), called Donnchad Midi, was High King of Ireland. His father, Domnall Midi, had been the first Uí Néill High King from the south-central Clann Cholmáin based in modern County Westmeath and weste ...

, high-king of Ireland ( 733–

797 __NOTOC__ Year 797 (Roman numerals, DCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 797 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Dom ...

); his mother was Fuirseach, a noblewoman of the

Dál nAraidi Dál nAraidi (; "Araide's part") or Dál Araide, sometimes Latinised as Dalaradia or Anglicised as Dalaray,Boyd, Hugh AlexanderIrish Dalriada ''The Glynns: Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society''. Volume 76 (1978). was a Cruthin ki ...

. Conchobar married Land, daughter of the former High-King Áed Oirdnide. They had a son named Atrí, who became a cleric at

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , " Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the ...

, as well as three other sons, Cathal, Eochócan, and Cináed. Conchobar appears as a historical figure for the first time when, in the year 802, the high-king Áed Oirdnide mac Néill of Cenél nÉogain, Conchobar's brother-in-law (possibly father-in-law) portioned out the lordship of

Clann Cholmáin Clann Cholmáin is the dynasty descended from Colmán Már mac Diarmato, son of Diarmait mac Cerbaill. Part of the Southern Uí Néill — they were the kings of Mide (Meath) — they traced their descent to Niall Noígiallach and his ...

between Conchobar and Ailill. Ailill was Conchobar's brother, but in the following year at Rathconnell, Conchobar killed his brother to take the whole lordship for himself. Only five years later Conchobar, allied now with the king of Connaught, campaigned for the High-Kingship. He met and defeated his former patron Áed Oirdnide, but it was not until Áed's death in

that Conchobar was recognized as High-King. Even then Conchobar had to deal with the opposition of Áed's cousin, Murchad mac Máele Dúin. The latter was able to form an alliance with one of Conchobar's own subject kindreds, the Síl nÁedo Sláine. Conchobar soon became aware of the treachery, and in 822 he took revenge on this kindred in "an especially horrific slaughter". In 823 Conchobar formed an alliance with Feidlimid mac Crimthainn,

King of Munster The kings of Munster ( ga, Rí Mumhan), ruled from the establishment of Munster during the Irish Iron Age, until the High Middle Ages. According to Gaelic traditional history, laid out in works such as the ''Book of Invasions'', the earliest ...

( 820– 847). However, Conchobar's attempts to subordinate Munster and its king proved intolerable to Feidlimid, and from 827 onwards Feidlimid mac Crimthainn was a source of opposition. Conchobar died in unknown circumstances in 833, to which renewed

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and s ...

raids formed the backdrop. He is buried at Clonard Abbey.Moody, Martin, and Byrne, (eds.), ''Maps, Genealogies, Lists'', p. 193, n. 25.

Notes

References

* Hudson, Benjamin T., "Conchobar mac Donnchada (d. 833)", in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online edn, Oxford University Press, Oct 200
, accessed 12 Feb 2007
* Moody, T. W., Martin, F. X., and Byrne, F. J., (eds.), ''Maps, Genealogies, Lists: A Companion to Irish History, Part II'', (''A New History of Ireland'', vol IX, Oxford, 1984) {{DEFAULTSORT:Conchobar mac Donnchada 833 deaths High Kings of Ireland Kings of Mide People from County Westmeath 9th-century Irish monarchs Year of birth unknown