AN GAODHAL.
Gaels for their pupils. — Ed. G.]
In the next issue we shall print the names of all
the Irish teachers, the number who receive Gaels
for their pupils, and by whom sent.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE VI.
[Delivered June 26, 1856.]
(Continued from p. 168.)
There is nothing in this book (so far as we can
judge in the absence of the original) to show why
it should be called the Annals of Clonmacnois.
We have already seen, and we shall have occasion
to touch on the same fact again, that the Annals of
Clonmacnois used by the Four Masters, came
down but to the year 1227, whereas this book
comes down to the year 1408.
The records contained in it are brief, but the
sometimes preserve details of singular interest,
not to be found in any of our other annals. As a
specimen of these additions — the most interesting
of them, perhaps — let me take the following pas¬
sage, which occurs at the year 905. but which
should be placed at the year 918: I give it in the
exact phraseology of the original :—
"Neal Glunduff was king [of Ireland] three
years, and was married to the Lady Gormphley,
daughter of King Flann, who was a very fair, vir¬
tuous and learned damosell: was first married to
Cormacke Mac Coulenan, King of Munster; sec¬
ondly to King Neal, by whom she had a son, call¬
ed Prince Donnell, who was drowned: upon whose
death she made many pitiful and learned ditties:
and lastly, she was mrried to Cearbhall Mac Mor¬
gan, King of Leinster. After all which royal mar¬
riages, she begged from door to door, forsaken of
all her friends and allies, and glad to be relieved
by her inferiors."
The order of Gormlaith's marriages is not accu¬
rately given in this entry. Let us correct the en¬
try from another and more reliable authority, that
of the Book of Leinster.
It is true that Gormlaith was first married, or
rather betrothed, to the celebrated king, bishop,
and scholar. Cormac Mac Cullennan, King of Mun¬
ster; but that marriage was never consummated.
as the young king changed his mind, and restored
the princess to her father, with all her fortune and
dowry, while he himself took holy orders. He (as
you are aware) became subsequently Archbishop
of Cashel, and was, as you may remember, the au¬
thor of the Saltair of Cashel, as well as the learn¬
ed compilation since known as Cormac's Glossary.
After having been thus deserted by King Cor¬
mac, Gormlaith was married against her will to
Cearbhall, King of Leinster.
Shortly afterwards, in the year 908, — probably
in reality on account of the repudiation of the prin¬
cess by the King of Munster, though ostensibly
to assert his right to the presentation to the an¬
cient church of Meinister Eibhin, now Monaster¬
even (in the present Queen's county) which down
to this time belonged to Munster, — Flann Siona,
the father of Gormlaith, who was hereditrry king
of Meath, and then Monarch of Erinn, proceeded
to make war on the southern prince; and, accom¬
panied by his son-in-law, the King of Leinster, he
Marched with their united forces to Bealach Mugh¬
na (now Ballymoon, in the present county of Kil¬
dare), within two miles of the present town of Car¬
low. Here they were met by King Cormac at the
head of the men of Munster, and a furious battle
ensued between them, in which the Munstermen
were defeated, and Cormac, the king and bishop,
killed and beheaded on the field.
Cearbhall, king of Leinster, and husband of the
prince Gormlaith, was badly wounded in the bat¬
tle, and carried home to his palace at Naas, where
he was assiduously attended to by his queen, who
was scarcely ever absent from his couch. It bep¬
pened that one day when he was convalescent, but
still confined to his bed the battle of Bealach
Mughna became the subject of their conversation.
Cearbhall described the fight with animation, and
dwelt with seemingly exuberant satisfaction on the
defeat of Cormac, and the dismemberment of his
body in his presence. The queen, however, who
was sitting on the foot rail of the bed, said that it
was a great pity that the body of the holy bishop
should be unnecessarily mutilated and desecrated,
upon which the king, in a sudden fit of rage,
struck her so rude a blow with his foot as threw
her headlong on the ground, by which her clothes
were thrown into disorder, in the presence of all
her ladies and attendants.
The queen felt highly mortified and insulted at
the indignity thus offered to her; and fled to her
father for protection. Her father, however, in the
presence of a powerful Danish enemy in Dublin,
did not choose to take any hostile steps to punish
the rudeness of King Cearbhall, but sent his daugh¬
ter back again to her husband. Not so her young
kinsman, Niall Glundubh [of the Black Knee], son
of the brave Aedh Finnliath, King of Aileach [i.e.
King of Ulster]. This brave prince having heard
of the indignity which had been put upon his rela¬
tive. raised all the northern clans, and at their
head marched to the borders of Leinster, with the
intention of avenging the insult, as well as of
taking the queen herself under the protection of
the powerful forces of the north. Queen Gormlaith
however, objected to any violent measures, and on¬
ly insisted on a separation from her husband, and
the restoration of her dowry. She had four-and-
twenty residences given to her in Leinster by
Cearbhall on her marriage, and these he consented
to confirm to her, and to release her legally from
her vows as his wife. The queen being thus once
more free from conjugal ties, returned to her fath¬
er's house for the third time.
After this Niall Glundubh, deeming that the
gross conduct of Cearbhall to his queen, and their
final separation, had legally as well as virtually
dissolved their marriage, proposed for her hand to
her father; but both father and daughter refused,
and for the time, she continued to reside at the
court of Flann.
In the course of the following year (904), howe¬
ver. Cearbhall was killed in battle by the Danes of
Dublin, under their leader Ulbh, and all impedi¬
ments being now removed, Gormlaith became the
wife of Niall Glundubh.
From this period to the year 917, we hear noth¬
ing more of queen Gormlaith. Her father died in
the meantime in the vor 914, and after him the
young Niall Glundudh succeeded to the supreme
throne as Monarch of Erinn.
