Brian Bórama

Brian Bórama, Brian Boru, Brian Bóroimhe. Also bears the patronymic mac Ceinnéidigh. The victor of Clontarf (1014), a historical high king of Ireland whose story is encrusted with legend. The cognomen Bórama derives from Béal Bórama, ‘The Pass of the Tributes’, an earthern ring fort 1 mile NW of Killaloe [Ir. Cill Dalua, St Dalua's church], his birthplace, in Co. Clare. Brian's usual residence or ‘palace’ was at Kincora [Ir. ceann cora, weir head] on the Shannon, also near Killaloe. Brian became ruler of a small kingdom, Dál Cais (also Dál gCais), or, in English, the Dalcassians, in east Clare, when his brother was killed in an ambush. Brian's first enemies were the Danes, headquartered in Limerick, and the Eóganacht, seated at the acropolis of Cashel, whose power was somewhat diminished under Danish pressure. He participated in the sack of Limerick in 968, and he vanquished Cashel in 978. In time Brian extended his will against neighbouring kingdoms as well as against the Norsemen who had settled in Ireland. By 988 he had become, in effect, king of southern Ireland, and in 997 he agreed with Máel Sechnaill [Malachy], the ard rí [high king], to divide spheres of influence between them. Many Leinstermen opposed Brian's hegemony, but he proved the stronger, so strong that he could break his agreement with Máel Sechnaill and overcome him on the battlefield.

By (1005 he was, by his own description in the Book of Armagh, the emperor of the Irish. Brian did not, however, create a national monarchy or the institutions of such a monarch, but he did contribute to the idea of a kingship for the whole island. At Clontarf [Ir. Cluain Tarbh, bull meadow] Brian led forces from many parts of Ireland against the Norse and their Leinster allies. This was not an irredentist purge of foreigners, as Scandinavian settlers and traders remained in Ireland and eventually merged with the rest of the population. The great carnage was not forgotten by either side, however, and is described towards the end of the famous Icelandic saga The Burning of Njal. At Clontarf Brian was in advanced years, perhaps 74, and according to legend he was stabbed in his tent by a Danish intruder named Brodar or Brodir. Although Brian's prestige has always been great, some historians decry his destruction of dynastic principles of legitimacy, replacing it with a principle of submission to greater power. Brian was the third husband of Gormlaith (1) (or Gormflaith), a much-divorced woman sometimes described as the ‘Queen mother of Dublin’. A harp thought to belong to Brian, a symbol for Ireland, is housed at Trinity College.

See the historical study by Roger C.Newman, Brian Boru: King of Ireland (Dublin, 1983). Several popular novels also deal with Brian's story, the most recent of which is Morgan Llywelyn's Lion of Ireland (Boston, 1980). See also DALCASSIAN CYCLE.