Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/414

 a season of famine and drought for rain, and three showers of silver, of honey, and of wheat following, but the ‘Book of Ballymote’ (f. 49 a, l. 37) says ‘tri frassa le gein,’ three showers at his birth. The translation of the ‘Annals of Clonmacnois’ gives another variant of the tale, and the ‘Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland’ (i. 362) a fourth. The lateness of the fable is shown by the mention of money (Annals of Clonmacnois), which was not in general use in Ireland in the eighth century, but it is perhaps worth note that a deep snow of three months' duration is mentioned in the annals as occurring in the first year of his reign.

He married Ethne, daughter of Breasal Breagh; she died in 768, leaving a son, Aedh Oirnidhe, who became king of Ireland in 798, and whose son Niall (791–845) [q. v.] succeeded him.

[Book of Ballymote, facsimile; Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vol. i.; Annals of Ulster, ed. Hennessy, vol. i.] 

NIALL (791–845), king of Ireland, in Irish annals known as Niall Caille or Cailne, son of Aedh Oirnidhe, king of Ireland, was born in 791, and was seven years old when his father became king of Ireland. Niall (715–778) was his grandfather. He is called Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh in ‘Book of Leinster,’ f. 217 (cf. Annala Rioghachta Eireann, i. 470). In 821 he deposed Murchadh, son of Maelduin, and became chief of the Cinel Eoghain. Eoghan Mainistrech, primate of Armagh, was driven from his see by Cathal, chief of the Oirghialla, in 825, and at once sent his psalm-singer with a complaint in verse to Niall, whose confessor he was. Niall raised the clans of both Tyrone and Tyrconnell, a proof of his great power in the north at the time, and fought a battle with the Oirghialla and the Ulidians near Armagh. He defeated them after a severe contest, and replaced Eoghan in his bishopric. In 833 he succeeded Conchobhar, son of Donnchadh, as king of Ireland. His home was Ailech, near Derry, and when the Danes attempted the plunder of the church of Derry in 833 he met and defeated them. He inherited a feud with the Leinstermen from his father, who had often made war on them, and in 834 invaded Leinster, obtained a tribute, and set up Bran, son of Faelain, as a king in his interest. He also plundered Meath as far as the border of MacCoghlan's country in the present King's County. He made a treaty with Feidhlimidh, son of Criomhthainn, king of Munster, at Cloncurry, co. Kildare, in 837, but in 839 Feidhlimidh tried to become king of Ireland, plundered Meath and encamped at Tara, then, as now, a mere open hill with earthworks. Niall marched from the north, and Feidhlimidh, who had gone to attack Wexford, turned and met him at Maghochtair in Kildare, where he was defeated, and never again attacked Niall. The Danes, who had several times sailed up Lough Swilly in Niall's reign, were caught and defeated by him on Magh Itha, by the river Finn, co. Donegal, in 843. In 845 he was drowned in the River Callan, near Armagh. A cairn, which in 1799 was, in spite of many inroads, still forty-four yards in diameter, was asserted by tradition to be his tomb. A farmer demolished it early in this century. Niall Caille is mentioned in several ancient poems. One of these is put into the mouth of Dachiarog, the patron saint of Erigal Keeroge, co. Tyrone, another into that of Bec Mac De, while a third is attributed to Maenghal Alithir. He is mentioned as an ancestor to be proud of in a poem by Gillabrighde MacConmidhe [q. v.], bard of Brian O'Neill, written in 1260.

His son, Aedh Finnliath, became king of Ireland in 863, and was father of Niall (870?–919) [q. v.] His daughter, who married Conang, king of Magh Bregh, composed a poem on the battle of Cilluandaighri, in which her son Flann was slain (Cogadh Gaedel re Gallaibh, ed. Todd, p. 32).

[Book of Leinster, facs.; Cogadh Gaedel re Gallaibh, ed. Todd; Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan; Annals of Ulster, ed. Hennessy, vol. i.; Miscellany of Celtic Society; MacConmidhe's poem, ed. O'Donovan, 1849; Ogygia, R. O'Flaherty, 1685; Stuart's Historical Memoirs of Armagh, Newry, 1819, p. 607, as to his grave.] 

NIALL (870?–919), king of Ireland, known in Irish history as or, son of Aedh Finnliath, king of Ireland, grandson of Niall (791–845) [q. v.], and great-great-grandson of Niall (715–778) [q. v.], was born about 870. He belonged to the northern Ui Neill, and was thirteenth in descent from Eoghain, the founder of the Cinel Eoghain. In 900 he challenged his brother Domhnall, king of Ailech. The Cinel Eoghain prevented the battle, which was to have been a fight of septs, and not a mere duel. The brothers made friends, and in 903 invaded Meath and burnt Tlachta, near Athboy. In 905 he made a foray into Ui Fiachrach in northern Connaught and slew Aedh, son of Maelpatraic, its chief. Two years later he captured and drowned Cearnachan, who had violated the sanctuary of Armagh. In 909 he is called Glundubh in the chronicles for the first time; but no history of the cognomen is preserved. He