Domnall mac Murchada

For other people named Domnall mac Murchada, see Domnall mac Murchada (disambiguation).

Domnall mac Murchada
King of Leinster; King of Dublin
Refer to caption
Domnall's name as it appears on folio 43v of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 489 (the Annals of Ulster).[1]
King of Leinster
(nominal)
Reign1072–1075
PredecessorDiarmait mac Máel na mBó
SuccessorDonnchad mac Domnaill Remair
King of Dublin
Reign1075
PredecessorGofraid mac Amlaíb meic Ragnaill
SuccessorMuirchertach Ua Briain
Died1075
HouseMeic Murchada (Uí Chennselaig)
FatherMurchad mac Diarmata

Domnall mac Murchada (died 1075),[2] also known as Domnall mac Murchada meic Diarmata,[3] was a leading late eleventh-century claimant to the Kingdom of Leinster, and a King of Dublin. As a son of Murchad mac Diarmata, King of Dublin and the Isles, Domnall was a grandson of Diarmait mac Máel na mBó, King of Leinster, and thus a member of the Uí Chennselaig. Domnall was also the first of the Meic Murchada, a branch of the Uí Chennselaig named after his father.

In 1071, the year before his grandfather's death, Domnall and an Uí Chennselaig kinsman, Donnchad mac Domnaill Remair, battled for control of Leinster. Although Domnall is accorded the title King of Leinster in one mediaeval king-list, Donnchad was evidently a more powerful claimant, and Domnall appears to have held the Leinster kingship in name only.

Domnall's rise to power in the Kingdom of Dublin took place in 1075, after the expulsion of the reigning Gofraid mac Amlaíb meic Ragnaill, King of Dublin by the latter's overlord, Toirdelbach Ua Briain, King of Munster. The circumstances surrounding Domnall's accession are uncertain. He may have collaborated with Gofraid to wrench the kingdom from the grip of the Uí Briain, or he may have been installed in the kingship by Toirdelbach himself, and ruled under the latter's overlordship. Whatever the case, Domnall died within the year, and Toirdelbach placed his own son, Muirchertach, upon the throne.

  1. ^ The Annals of Ulster (2017) § 1075.4; The Annals of Ulster (2008) § 1075.4; Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. B. 489 (n.d.).
  2. ^ Byrne (2001).
  3. ^ Moody; Martin; Byrne (2005) p. 209.