There are estimated to have been almost 150 high kings of Tara, the seat of royal power in Ireland for centuries, spanning from prehistory into early historic and medieval times. The study of the high-kingship of Ireland and its association with Tara, in County Meath, is necessarily complex. The structure of society in prehistoric Ireland is not precisely known, since written records of the early kings were only initiated in the late first millennium AD.
Some kings are thought by modern scholars to have been entirely mythological. Others are more firmly attested, especially those who reigned after the coming of Christianity. It was Christian monks who wrote down the lore and genealogies of the Irish people. Some of the claimed over-kings of Tara might not have existed, while others were inserted into the genealogies to establish the longevity and pedigree of particular septs.
One thing that was agreed my many of the poets and seanachies and chroniclers was that of all the ancient High Kings of Ireland, Cormac Mac Art (Cormac son of Art), who reigned in the third century AD, was considered the greatest of them all.
Cormac was the grandson of another great and illustrious High King, Conn Cédchathach (Conn of the Hundred Battles), who was said to have reigned in the second century. Conn belongs to a more shadowy and diaphanous era of prehistory, and modern scholars are inclined to think that he was an ancestor-deity of the kings. He was the first to hear a scream from the Lia Fáil, the magic stone at Tara that is said to scream when the rightful High King stands on it. Conn’s own grandfather had been the illustrious Tuathal Techtmar, whose historic existence is highly questionable, and around whom there is much pseudo-history.
Cormac’s father was Art, who was alternatively known as ‘Art the Lonely’ because of the fact that both his brothers (Connla and Crionna) had been slain by their uncles and he was therefore ‘pitifully solitary’. Art was killed in the battle of Moy Mocruime (now in County Galway) fighting against foreign forces which had been brought by his exiled nephew Lugaid MacCon from Scotland and Britain. The victorious Lugaid installed himself as High King of Ireland. He is described as a ‘rude, ill-tempered, domineering man’ who enjoyed little loyalty from his subjects, and was ‘little mourned when he died’. Lugaid was said to have been stabbed to death by a druid as he was bestowing golden gifts on the poets.
While Lugaid was still alive, and in the high kingship, Cormac had come to Tara as a youth. He was herding sheep for a peasant widow. One of the sheep broke into the garden of the queen and ate the queen’s vegetables. King Lugaid, enraged, held a trial, in which he ordered that as a penalty, the widow’s sheep should be forfeit to the queen.
At this point, the young Cormac stood up and addressed the court. He told King Lugaid that his sentence was unjust, and that a proper punishment for the crime was that only the wool of the sheep should be forfeit, since ‘both the wool and the green things will grow again’ and both parties would forget their hurt.
The wisdom of Cormac’s judgement was applauded by the astounded court.
Lugaid exclaimed that Cormac’s judgement was that of a king.
Cormac fled Tara, but returned and claimed the throne upon Lugaid’s passing. But, typical of some of the stories of kings, things were not so straightforward for Cormac. At a feast at Tara, another rival for the high kingship, Fergus Black-Tooth of Ulster, managed to singe the hair of Cormac, creating a blemish that prevented the young man from taking the kingship. Again, Cormac fled Tara. This is because of the time-honoured tradition, in both mythology and recorded history, that no king could rule if he was blemished in any way.
Fergus became High King, but only for a year. Cormac returned with an army and defeated Fergus, gaining undisputed possession of the kingship.
Cormac’s reign as High King of Tara (and therefore Ireland) was said to have been accompanied by many bounties – the land produced abundant harvests and the seas gave plentiful fish. ‘There were neither woundings nor robberies in his time, but every one enjoyed his own, in peace’.
Another account said that: ‘Eirinn was prosperous during his time, and just judgements were distributed throughout by him, so that no one durst attempt to wound a man in Ireland, during the short jubilee of seven years.’
Cormac was said to have rebuilt the palace of Tara. He constructed Teach Michuarta, the great ‘Banqueting Hall’, whose long embankments can be seen to this day. He also built a grianán (sun-house) for the women, and the House of the Hostages, and the House of a Thousand Soldiers. ‘He gave,’ claimed one account, ‘to the office of Ard-Righ a magnificence that it had not known before.’
His hall was said to have had a flaming lamp, and 150 beds, and 150 warriors stood in his presence when he sat down at a banquet. There were 150 cup-bearers, 150 jewelled cups of silver and gold, and the total household numbered 1,050.
The Book of Leinster tells us that: ‘Three thousand persons each day is what Cormac used to maintain in pay; besides poets and satirists, and all the strangers who sought the king; Galls and Romans, and Franks, and Frisians, and Longbards, and Albanians (Caledonians), and Saxons, and Cruithnians (Picts), for all those used to seek him, and it was with gold and with silver, with steeds and with chariots, that he presented them. They used all to come to Cormac, because there was not in his time, nor before him, any more celebrated in honour, and in dignity, and in wisdom…’
The triennial Feis Temro, the Feis of Tara, gained new dignity and importance during Cormac’s reign. Its decisions and decrees were respected in every part of Ireland.
In the 17th century, scholar and historian O’Flaherty recorded: ‘Cormac exceeded all his predecessors in magnificence, munificence, wisdom, and learning, as also in military achievements. His palace was most superbly adorned and richly furnished, and his numerous family proclaim his majesty and munificence; the books he published, and the schools he endowed at Temair (Tara) bear unquestionable testimony of his learning. There were three schools instituted, in the first the most eminent professors of the art of war were engaged, in the second, history was taught, and in the third, jurisprudence was professed.’
He had some imperial notions too, not being satisfied to confine the benefits of his reign to Ireland. He wanted to extend them to Alba (Scotland) also. The Annals of the Four Masters tell us that in the year 240, a fleet led by Cormac sailed across the sea:
‘The age of Christ, 240. The fourteenth year of Cormac. The battle of Magh-Techt, and the fleet of Cormac [sailed] across Magh-Rein (i.e. across the sea, Magh Rein meaning the ‘Plain of the Sea’) this year, so that it was on that occasion he obtained the sovereignty of Alba [Scotland]’.
In other words, long before the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century AD, and many centuries before the English colonised Ireland, an Irish king was colonising the northern part of what is now Britain!
For all the good things that were said about Cormac and his greatness, it is also recorded that he was not invariably righteous. He made war on Munster, unjustly, and was punished for that. Here follows a short account of how it happened.
On one occasion, Tara ran short of provisions, which for a High King of Tara, who might have to entertain guests at a moment’s notice, was ‘almost an unpardonable sin’.
Cormac’s chief steward advised him that the great province of Munster, due to its great size and wealth, ought to pay two-fifths of the tribute of Ireland to the Ard Rí (High King), but that it was only paying one-fifth, and should now be called upon to provide Tara with provisions. Cormac was seemingly impressed by this argument and made demand on Munster, which was promptly refused by Fiacha, its king. Cormac thereupon marched into Munster at the head of an army to collect what he considered his due. Fiacha and the Munstermen met him at Knocklong, in the present county of Limerick, and routed the High King’s army, pushing them into Ossory, and ‘humiliatingly compelled Cormac to give him securities and pledges, and to promise to send him hostages from Tara’.
Fascinatingly, the historian O’Halloran tells us that Cormac had in his time a ‘house of virgins’ who kept constantly alive the fires of Bel or the sun, and of Samain, the moon:
‘There was in Tara a royal foundation of this kind, wherein none were admitted but virgins of the noblest blood. It was called Cluain Feart, or the place of retirement till death, from Cluan and Feart, a grave; as they never quitted the precincts of the house, from their first reception — The duty of these virgins, was, to keep up constantly the fires of Bel, or the sun, and of Samhain, or the moon, which customs they borrowed from their Phoenician ancestors.’
When Dunlaing MacEnda, King of Leinster, broke into this retreat and put the virgins to the sword, Cormac decreed death to the scoundrel, and compelled his successors to send to Tara, annually, 30 white cows with calves of the same colour, 30 brass collars for the cows, and 30 chains to hold them while milking.
It is recorded that the first watermill was created in Ireland by Cormac Mac Art. He created it to spare the labours of his concubine, Ciarnat, daughter of the king of the Picts. She was said to have been more beautiful than any other woman in Ireland. She had been carried from from Alba (Scotland) by the Ulstermen, and Cormac obtained her from them. His wife, Ethni, was naturally jealous of her husband’s concubine, and made Ciarnat her slave, compelling the woman to grind by the quern every day nine pecks of corn. This theme of the jealous High King’s wife would be repeated when the famous High King Niall of the Nine Hostage’s father, Eochaid Mugmedón, took a British woman, Cairenn, as his concubine, enraging his wife, Mongfhind, who forced Cairenn to undertake much physical exertion at Tara in an unsuccessful attempt to make her miscarry the child in her womb – the child who would later become Niall, the illustrious ancestor of the O’Neill dynasty.
Eventually, age caught up with Cormac and he resigned the kingship. There are some accounts which suggest that he was forced to resign because he had lost an eye. His son, Cellach, had insulted a woman of the Desi. The Deisi king, Aengus, killed Cellach in his father’s presence (some say in the Banqueting Hall at Tara) and, in the scuffle, Aengus wounded the High King Cormac by putting his eye out with his sword.
Cormac’s departure from the High-Kingship ended what was recalled as ‘one of the most fruitful as well as illustrious reigns’ that ever blessed Ireland.
One of the old historians recalled that: ‘He was the greatest king that Ireland ever knew. In power and eloquence, in the vigour and splendour of his reign, he had not his like before or since. In his reign no one needed to bolt the door, no one needed to guard the flock, nor was any one in all Ireland distressed for want of food or clothing. For of all Ireland this wise and just king made a beautiful land of promise.’
Cormac retired to Cleite Acaill (Cleitech) overlooking the River Boyne at Rosnaree, in sight of the great prehistoric burial mounds of Knowth and Newgrange. There, he gave himself to ‘study and good works’.
The ancient authorities attribute three great literary works to Cormac in his retirement. These are Teagasc an Riogh (Instructions of a King), the Book of Acaill, and the Psaltair of Tara.
Although Teagasc an Riogh is believed to have been written several centuries after Cormac’s life, its teachings form a remarkable and wise code of ethics. The text takes the form of a dialogue between the king and his son, Cairbre, whom he is instructing for the duties of High King. The Book of Acail is a law tract, and is preserved in as part of the Irish Brehon Laws. The Psaltair na Tara is sadly no longer in existence, but is frequently attested in ancient chronologies and genealogies, which portray it as a very ancient work rich in historic and genealogic information.
The remarkable king Cormac Mac Art left this world in the year 267, more than a century and a half before the coming of Saint Patrick. He is said to have converted to Christianity, something attested by a tract called Releg na Riogh in the Book of the Dun Cow, seven years before he died: ‘For Cormac had the faith of the one true God, according to the law; for he said he would not adore stones, or trees, but that he would adore Him who made them, and who had power over all the elements, i.e. the one powerful God, who created the elements; in Him he would believe.’
Cormac’s death came about through intriguing circumstances. Having converted to Christianity, he ‘turned against the druids’ in deference to the Christian God. As a result, the druid Maelgenn incited the siabhradh (spectres, phantoms or supernatural beings) against him, and a devil attacked him and, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, he ‘died at Cleiteach, the bone of a salmon sticking in his throat’.
A well-known tradition about his death is that Cormac wished not to be buried at Brú na Bóinne with the other ‘pagan’ kings, but at Ros na Riogh, looking torwards the east.
Spread not the beds of Brugh for me
When restless death-bed’s use is done:
But bury me at Rossnaree
And face me to the rising sun.
Disregarding his dying wish, the druids decreed that Cormac should be interred with his ancestors at Brú na Bóinne. However, when the bearers were carrying his body across the river on a bier, a great wave swept it from their shoulders, and cast it ashore at Ros na Riogh (Rossnaree), where, according to his wishes, Cormac was buried.
A low mound not far from Rossnaree House is pointed out as the last resting place of Cormac Mac Art. However, that mound was excavated in the 20th century and only the remains of three adult females and an infant were found. A sample from one of the skeletons yielded a calibrated radiocarbon date of 257-533AD.
Author Elizabeth Hickey, writing in her 1966 book I Send My Love Along the Boyne, said that a mound at Rosnaree (she spells it with one s, as I do!) was ‘destroyed before 1836’, and that this was more likely to have been the grave of King Cormac than the ‘little eminence pointed out today’.
Compiled by Anthony Murphy
This article was first published for Mythical Ireland email newsletter subscribers and Mythical Ireland patrons on Patreon in August 2024.
Sources
The Story of the Irish Race by Seumas McManus, 1921.
A General History of Ireland by Sylvester O’Halloran, Vol. 1, London, 1778.
Mythical Ireland Monograph Series No. 1: Finn and the Salmon of Knowledge: mythology, toponymy and cosmology, Anthony Murphy, 2021.
The Burial of King Cormac, by Samuel Ferguson.
I Send My Love Along the Boyne, Elizabeth Hickey, 1966.
