OConnor

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O'Connor ( Ó Conchobhair). The Connacht royal family (to be distinguished from the unrelated Offaly dynasty of O'Connor Faly) descended from Conchobar (d. 973) of the Uí Briúin Aí, one of the lines claiming descent from Brión, legendary elder brother of Niall Noígiallach. When not controlling the whole province they ruled Síl Muiredaig (approximately Co. Roscommon). However, during the 11th century they finally ended rival claims to provincial kingship from the O'Rourkes (UíRuaric) of Uí Briúin Bréifne (Leitrim/Cavan area) and O'Flahertys (Uí Fhlaithbertaig) of Uí Briúin Seola (Tuam–Galway region). At the same time successive O'Connor kings, Áed in Gaí Bernaig (Áed ‘of the Gapped Spear’, d. 1067) and Ruaidri na Soide Buide (Ruaidrí ‘of the Yellow Bitch’, deposed 1092, d. 1118), attempted vainly to shake off the overlordship of the O'Brien high kings, a conflict partially resolved by the inauguration in 1106 of Toirdelbach Mór Ua Conchobair (d. 1156) as king over Síl Muiredaig in the first instance, sponsored by his maternal uncle, the high king Muirchertach Ua Briain.

Toirdelbach Mór soon rose to be provincial king, and from c. 1120 displaced the O'Briens in the role of ‘high king with opposition’. Although he had to give way c.1150 to the northern high king Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, on the later's death in 1166 Toirdelbach's son Rory O'Connor ( Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, deposed 1186, d. 1198) seized control of all Ireland, banishing the recalcitrant king of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, and thus unknowingly precipitating the Anglo‐Norman invasion, when Diarmait brought in foreign auxiliaries in 1167 and 1169. By the treaty of Windsor (1175) between Rory and King Henry II, O'Connor retained the province of Connacht and a fleeting overlordship of the uncolonized west and north of Ireland, but in succession struggles after his retirement, Rory's sons were ousted by the much younger, perhaps posthumous, son of Toirdelbach Mór, Cathal Crobderg O'Connor. Cathal held all Connacht by a royal charter, and in 1223 requested a renewal in favour of his eldest son Áed (d. 1228), but Richard de Burgh also held charters and by 1235 had conquered Connacht, the five cantreds nearest to Athlone (approximately Síl Muiredaig) being reserved to the English crown and farmed out to Cathal's younger son Fedlimid (d. 1265). Since Fedlimid's son Aed (d. 1274), who fought at the battle of Down (1260), left no heir, the later O'Connor Don and O'Connor Roe lines descended from Áed (d. 1228).

Bibliography

Orpen, G. H. , Ireland under the Normans (4 vols., 1911–20)

Katharine Simms

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