Niall Noígiallach

Niall Noígiallach, Niall Naígiallach, Niall Naoighiallach [of the Nine Hostages; Nine Hostager]. Ancestor and eponym of the Uí Néill dynasty that dominated Ireland for six centuries; according to tradition, leader of ambitious foreign conquests, and possible captor of St Patrick. Although Niall is sometimes cited as the first irrefutably historical ard rí [high king], his story is filled with mythological motifs. The purported dates of his reign, often given as AD 379–405, are still matters of dispute. He should have lived a generation before the coming of St Patrick, traditionally 432, as Niall's son Lóegaire was thought to have met with the saint; but James Carney has controversially put Niall's death as late as c.452. The different branches of the Uí Néill dynasty quarrelled incessantly, but agreed upon a common ancestor in Niall, whose persona and biography were embellished by many hands. Two stories explain his epithet noígiallach [nine hostager]. The older, more plausible, but less known version is that he took one hostage from each of the nine tuatha of the Airgialla, among his first conquests. Medieval scribes probably invented the better-known version, that he took one hostage from each of Ireland's five provinces, Munster, Ulster, Leinster, Connacht, and Mide, as well as from the Scots, Saxons, British, and French.

Niall was the son of a captured British slave Cairenn and King Eochaid Mugmedón, of Connacht origins, who already had four sons by his wife Mongfhind (1). The story of how Niall acceded to the kingship ahead of his brothers by lying with dame Sovereignty, the loathsome hag become beautiful when made love to, as well as Mongfhind's cruelty to Niall and his mother, is told in Echtra Mac nEchach Muigmedóin [The Adventure of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedón]. The druid Sithchenn devises plans to test Niall and his half-brothers and announces at the end of the story that Niall and his descendants will have dominion over Ireland. In a variant of this story, Mongfhind dreams that her four sons will contest among themselves for the kingship, with Brian winning. When, according to this version, Eochaid dies and her four sons squabble with Niall without Brian's prevailing, she uses her powers of sorcery to entreat the men of Ireland to give the kingship to her brother Crimthann. Meanwhile, her four sons agree to divide the island among themselves, and so she turns to poisoning. In one version she intends to poison her brother, who deftly asks her to take the drink first; both die. In another, she tries to poison Niall, but takes it herself by mistake. She dies at Samain in both versions, which explains why at one time women of Munster addressed Halloween prayers to Mongfhind.

For all Niall's eminence in history and genealogical rolls, little is recorded of his reign and foreign conquests. Irish raiders unquestionably plundered the British coast in late Roman times, but contemporary commentators reject the assertion made by William Ridgeway (1924) that Niall can be identified with the Scotti [Irish] resisted by General Stilicho in 399. Irish texts describe his travel to Letha [Brittany] and Italy to seek his kingdom, but he would have lacked the wealth and logistical support to conquer and administer foreign lands. Much more plausible are slave-raids to various parts of Great Britain; attached to this is the unproven assumption that one of Niall's captured slaves was the boy St Patrick.

Four accounts survive of Niall's death, all of them in texts dating after the 11th century. In each Niall is pursued by Eochaid (10), son of the Leinster king Énna Cennselach. Eochaid's enmity begins when he is refused food by Laidcenn, Niall's poet, for which he burns Laidcenn's house and kills his son. In revenge, Laidcenn satirizes Leinster, depriving it of all foliage for a year, and Niall invades it. Eventually Eochaid is turned over to Niall by the Leinstermen, but kills Laidcenn with a stone, causing Niall to banish him for the rest of the ruler's life. Later, while Niall is abroad, Eochaid kills him (1) in Scotland, while Niall is being entertained by Pictish bards; (2) in the Alps (which may be a confusion with Alba [Scotland]); (3) in the English Channel; or (4) by the River Loire in France. In all versions his body is returned to be buried at Ochann/ Ocha [folk-etymologized into och cáini, sighing and weeping], now known as Faughan Hill, SW of Kells and 3 miles S of the assembly at Tailtiu.

Niall's place in Irish history was assured by the Uí Néill dynasty, founded by eight of his (perhaps) fifteen sons. Four sons established the northern branch, displacing the Ulaid of Ulster, with small, powerful kingdoms in Tír Chonaill [Donegal] and Tír Eógain [Tyrone], and four other sons along with Diarmait mac Cerbaill established the southern branch in the midlands, adjacent to Tara, over the modern counties of Meath, Westmeath, and Longford. They kept the kingship at Tara between them, deeply influencing the writing of history as well as the development of Christian institutions.

See Kuno Meyer (trans.), ‘The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages’, Otia Mersiana, 2 (1900), 84–92; repr. in T. P. Cross and C. H. Slover (eds.), Ancient Irish Tales (New York, 1936), 514–17; William Ridgeway, ‘Neill “of the Nine Hostages” ’, Journal of Roman Studies, 14 (1924), 123–36; T. F. O'Rahilly, ‘Niall of the Nine Hostages’, in Early Irish History and Mythology (Dublin, 1946), 209–34; James Carney, The Problem of St. Patrick (Dublin, 1961); F. J. Byrne, ‘Niall of the Nine Hostages’, in Irish Kings and High Kings (London, 1973), 70–86; Gearóid S. MacEoin, ‘The Mysterious Death of Loegaire mac Néill’, Studia Hibernica, 8 (1968), 21–48.