associate the founder of the local dynasty with the saint,
the date of whose arrival in Ireland had been set at 432.
Lóegaire plays a prominent role in the seventh cen-
tury Patrician hagiography, where his supposed
encounter with Patrick at Tara is a central element of
the narrative. According to Muirchú, Lóegaire converted
to Christianity following his encounter with St. Patrick.
Tírechán, on the other hand, says that he refused to
accept the Christian faith, because his father, Niall,
would not allow this; he had ordained that Lóegaire
should be buried, fully armed, in the ridges of Tara,
facing the graves of Uí Dúnlainge of Leinster—
traditional enemies of the Uí Néill—at Mullaghmast
in County Kildare. This hostility is reflected in the
annals—written long after Lóegaire’s lifetime—which
recount that Lóegaire routed the Laigin (Leinstermen)
in the year 453. Fortunes were reversed five years later
at the battle of Áth Dara when Lóegaire suffered a
defeat at the hands of the same enemy; he was taken
prisoner and released only when he gave the elements
as sureties that he would cease to levy the Bóruma
Laigen (“the cattle tribute of the Laigin”). A tract on
theBórumarecounts that Lóegaire broke his promise
and the elements, accordingly, passed judgement on him
and brought about his death. The account of his death
in the annals—at the year 462—refers to this legend.
Presumably because of his association with St. Patrick,
the pseudohistorical prologue to the Senchas Már(the
major collection of Brehon Law tracts) claims that
Lóegaire called a convention of the men of Ireland
to reform the traditional laws in accordance with
Christianity.
TheBansshenchas names two wives of Lóegaire as
Angas, daughter of Ailill Tassach of the Éoganachta of
Munster, and Muirecht, daughter of Eochaid Munremar,
an ancestor figure of the Dál Riata of Antrim and
Scotland. Genealogical accounts dating from different
periods ascribe between twelve and fifteen sons to
Lóegaire.
References and Further Reading
Mac Eoin, Gearóid, “The Mysterious Death of Loegaire mac
Néill.” Studia Hibernica8 (1968): 21–48.
Ó hÓgáin, Daithí. Myth, Legend & Romance, an Encyclopaedia
of the Irish Folk Tradition. New York: Prentice Hall, 1991.
Byrne, Paul. “Certain southern Uí Néill kingdoms (sixth to
eleventh century).” Ph.D. diss., University College Dublin,
2000.
Byrne, Francis John. Irish Kings and High-Kings. London:
Batsford, 1973.
See alsoAdomnan; Brehon Law; Conversion
to Christianity; Niall Noígiallach; Patrick; Tara;
Trim; Uí Néill; Uí Néill, Southern
LORDSHIP OF IRELAND
Although never in contemporary usage, modern histo-
rians use the term “lordship of Ireland” in acknowl-
edgement of the fact that the king of England from
1171 to 1541 bore the title “lord of Ireland” (dominus
Hibernie). The term sometimes carries a more
restricted connotation, denoting that part of medieval
Ireland over which the king of England exercised
effective power.
The term was first given expression in 1155 in the
papal privilege of Pope Adrian IV (1154–1159) known
asLaudabiliter.This letter, which was addressed to
Henry II, authorized a conquest of Ireland with the
aim of reforming the Irish church. Henry contem-
plated at that point bestowing Ireland, so the chroni-
cler Robert of Torigni claims, on his youngest brother
William, but nothing came of the proposal, and he
himself did not intervene in Ireland until 1171–1172,
when papal support for his actions was used as an
important legitimizing force. The role of Adrian IV
in granting the lordship to Henry II was subsequently
cited; for example, in 1317 in the Remonstrance of
the Irish princes (see below). The submission of the
Irish kings and bishops to Henry during his visit to
Ireland was regarded as a public acceptance by them
of his lordship, and in the words of Giraldus Cam-
brensis, Ireland was made subject to the English
crown “as if through a perpetual indenture and an
indissoluble chain.”
In 1177, at a council in Oxford, Henry granted
Ireland to his youngest son, John, who was the first to
use the title “lord of Ireland.” Henry’s intention was
that John should become King of Ireland, and plans
were set in motion to obtain a crown from Rome for
him. This can be seen as part of Henry’s wider strategy
to hold together the scattered lands of the Angevin
Empire by entrusting them to the government of dif-
ferent sons. Had the future turned out as Henry had
envisaged it, Ireland would have descended in a cadet
line of the Plantagenet house. Instead a sequence of
deaths resulted in John being made King of England
in 1199. His accession to the throne was a significant
moment in Irish history, and from that date the title
dominus Hiberniebecame permanently part of the
royal style for the rest of the Middle Ages, interestingly
inserted immediately after “king of England” and
before “duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and count
of Anjou.” Even so, official records in the first quarter
of the thirteenth century sometimes contain references
to the “kingdom of Ireland.” During John’s reign there
was a greater degree of royal involvement in Ireland
than at any other time during the medieval period, and
many historians regard him as the real creator of the
medieval lordship.LÓEGAIRE MAC NÉILL