CORMAC MAC CUILENNÁIN (836–908)and they built impressive tower houses for them-
selves within the city walls, or nearby. The examina-
tion of skeletal remains from St. Mary’s Dominican
priory shows that for most medieval Corkonians, life
was short and very hard. Nonetheless, the advent of
the Tudors seemed to promise a continued ameliora-
tion in Cork’s fortunes.
HENRYA. JEFFERIES
References and Further Reading
Jefferies, Henry A., and Gerard O’Brien.History of Cork. Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 2004.
O’ Flanagan, P., and C. G. Buttimer ed. Cork: History and Society.
Dublin: Geography Publications, 1993.
See alsoAnglo-Norman Invasion; Ecclesiastical
Settlements; Eóganachta; Mac Carthaig, Cormac;
Trade; Walled Towns
CORMAC MAC CUILENNÁIN (836–908)
Cormac mac Cuilennáin was a member of the Eóga-
nachta Chaisil branch of the Eóganachta, though like
Fedelmid mac Crimthainn (d. 847), no ancestor of his
had been king of Munster since Óengus mac Nad
Fraoích, grandson of the legendary founder of the
Eóganachta dynasties, Corc of Cashel, direct ancestor
of the most successful eastern Eóganachta branches,
whose death is mentioned in the annals around 489.
Cormac mac Cuilennáin became king of Munster in
902 and may have been a compromise candidate in the
absence of strong opposition from the main branches
of the dynasty. From his early years he is reputed to
have been of a scholarly and pious nature, and may
have been ordained priest and bishop, though this can-
not be verified. Although of an ascetic nature, he is
said to have been betrothed or even married to Gorm-
laith, daughter of Flann Sinna mac Máele-Sechnaill
(southern Uí Néill king of Tara from 879 to 916), but
rejected her because of his wish to remain celibate. It
may be noted that celibacy was not a requirement for
high office in the Church at that time. Gormlaith was
then married to Cerball mac Muireccáin, king of Lein-
ster, who is said in a bardic poem to have treated her
badly, and later very happily married to Niall Glundub,
northern Uí Néill king of Tara who was killed by the
Vikings at Islandbridge, Dublin, in 919. Serial mar-
riage was not unusual among women of noble birth in
medieval Ireland, in a society that sanctioned divorce
and used marriage as a means of cementing alliances.
Cormac mac Cuilennáin is credited with several
scholarly works, among them genealogical tracts for
the whole of Ireland in which Éber son of Míl, ancestor
of the Eóganachta, comes first instead of Éremon,
ancestor of the Uí Néill. The most famous extant work
assigned to him is the Sanas Chormaic, a glossary
containing etymologies and explanations of over 1,400
obsolete and difficult Irish words that may have been
part of the lost Psalter of Cashel, a compilation of
origin tales, genealogies, and tribal histories, part of
which may be found in the MS Laud Misc 610 (now
in the Bodleian Library). The fragment that has sur-
vived contains Munster origin tales and tribal histories,
as well as the aforementioned genealogical tracts.
As the Uí Néill continued to threaten the sover-
eignty of Munster, Cormac was the last Eóganachta
king of Munster to challenge northern hegemony. In
906 the southern Uí Néill king of Tara, Flann Sinna,
assisted by the king of Leinster, Cerball mac Muire-
cháin, led his forces into Munster and was met and
defeated by the Munstermen under Cormac, at Mag
Léna (modern Tullamore, Co. Offaly). In 908, Flann
Sinna, once again with the crucial assistance of Cer-
ball, king of Leinster, and Cathal, king of Connacht,
returned to the attack, as Cormac—instigated, accord-
ing to an eleventh century text, by Flaithbertach mac
Inmainén of the Múscraige, Abbot of Inis Cathaig—
claimed tribute from Leinster and is said to have sig-
nified his intention of assuming the position of high
king.The text was written in the interests of the
Osraige, neighbours and former vassals of the Eóga-
nachta, and there is unlikely to be much truth in it. It
is more likely that Cormac’s intentions were to dis-
courage the Uí Néill from further attacks on Munster.
In a battle fought at Belach Mugna near Leighlinbridge
in County Carlow, the Munstermen suffered a com-
plete defeat and Cormac was killed in the battle. He
was succeeded by Flaithbertach mac Inmainén, the last
king of Munster to be a cleric. The practice of elevating
clerics to the kingship is unique to the south of Ireland,
although not to Munster, as it occurred in south Lein-
ster also. With the death of Cormac mac Cuilennáin,
the decline of the Eóganachta overkingship, which had
begun in the previous century, became more pro-
nounced, and it was replaced by the Dál Cais, in the
person of Brian Boru, in 978.
LETITIA CAMPBELLReferences and Further Reading
Byrne, F. J. Irish Kings and Highkings. London: Batsford, 1972.
Reprint with additional notes and corrigenda, Dublin: Four
Courts Press, 2001.
Meyer, Kuno. “The Laud Genealogies and Tribal Histories.”
Zeitscrift f-ur Celtische Philologieviii (1911): 291–338.
Ó Corráin, Donnchadh. Ireland Before the Normans. Gill and
Macmillan, 1972.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. “Re-writing Irish Political History in the
Tenth Century.”InSeanchas: studies in early and medieval
Irish archaeology, history and literature in honour of Francis
J.Byrne, edited by A. P. Smyth, 212–224. Dublin: Four
Courts Press, 2000.