The mythologising of Brian Boru began within a generation or two of his death at Clontarf. Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh, an early twelfth-century O’Brienite propagandist tract, first articulated a vision […]

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In the twelfth-century Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh Brian’s second wife Gormlaith, daughter of the king of Leinster, is given a colourful role in the fatal march towards Clontarf and her […]

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A fundamental problem with the so-called kingship of Ireland after Brian (or indeed during Brian’s own reign and before) is that, while the concept was certainly old, it is unclear […]

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A mountain of material was written about the Battle of Clontarf in succeeding generations but there is very little that is genuinely contemporaneous; distinguishing between what can be believed and […]

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Whereas some modern historians see the Leinstermen as Brian’s principal opponents at Clontarf, medieval sources are in no doubt that the enemy were the Norse of Dublin. The Annals of […]

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