brian

Brian Boru:

Hero, King and Nationalist

Once there lived a king whose realm included every kingdom in Ireland. He united quarrelsome tribes and ruled with a strong hand. He embodied every virtue valued by those he ruled. This hero is, of course, Brian Boru. Next to St. Patrick, Brian Boru is considered the most revered and striking figure in Irish History1. On a Europe wide basis his reign can be compared to that of Charlemagne and Alfred the Great2 A major symbol in Irish History and Literature, Brian Boru means a lot to that troubled land. Since Brian, the whole course of Irish History has been directed at recapturing what he achieved: a unified Ireland under an Irish leader. Heady words! This paper will examine some of his myths and look at him as a hero, a king and a nationalist.

Hero

Brian Boru is first, a hero. What is a hero? A hero is someone who stands out from ordinary men. Someone who embodies all of the ideals or values of the society that honors him or her3. Besides the requisite physical strength and prowess, Brian held a great sense of religion and culture, family reverence and, of course, had to fight invaders.

After centuries of invasion by Vikings, Brian faced the task of rebuilding devastated churches, monasteries and schools4. He became a patron of the arts and sent abroad for manuscripts to replace those stolen or destroyed by the Vikings.5 (It is remarkable that any such codexs survived.6) His religion, by all evidence was sincere and even ascetic at times, however, he did see the necessity of religious and political bonds for the salvation of society.7 Even his enemies admired him. Icelandic sagas describe him as "fair and honorable" and "free from vindictiveness.8

Brian's family included his father Cennedig, king of the small holding of Thomond in Northern Munster.9 Brian's older half-brother, Mahon, ruled after their father. Together the brothers threw the Norsemen out of Limerick. Mahon ruled Munster for eight years before a rival clan, the Caibre family, slew him.10 Brian took swift action to avenge his brother's death which typified the warrior race and showed his loyalty to his family.11

Another achievement of Brian's is the revival of culture. One example of this is the fair a Tailte in Meath. It had not been held for 80 years due to Viking oppression until Brian revived it.12

Brian achieved heroic proportions through his defeat of Norse invaders who had set up stronghold in the mouth of every major river along the southern coast of Ireland.13(see figure 1) By 997, Brian ruled all of Southern Ireland. Together with Malachy, King of Meath and ruler of the northern half, he broke the yoke of the Norse.14 His struggles with the foreigners is perhaps the apex of his career.15 However, some of this glory has been exaggerated. The Norse did not necessarily profess the paganness history attributes to them. Many converted to Christianity though there is no exact date for this.16

King

A king is the most powerful and eminent of a group, category or place.17 Brian Boru achieved both king-ship and the High-kingship of Ireland. Considering that Ireland consisted of a conglomeration of independent king-ships, this is remarkable.18 Because of the bast number of these kingships, the idea that every Irish man or woman descended from a king is not entirely exaggerated.

What, however, does this mean for Brian? The power of Irish kings in this era was limited by custom and not absolute.19 They retained this power by compact and by their strategic territorial holdings.20 Despite the number of lower kings, like Brian's father, two strong families held most of the power before Brian's triumph: the Ui Neill in the north and eastern midland and the Eoganacht of Munster in the South. Brian defeated the chieftains of the Eoganacht in 997.21

The position of high-king (or ard ri in Gaelic) in Ireland was not necessarily a legal institution. Rather, it was a prize to be won.22 The Irish, used to the ascending hierarchy of kings and over-kings could accept the concept of a high"king despite its constitutional non existence.23 Actually, it was not so much the fact that there was no legal concept of a high-king, but that enforcing his power proved difficult. The Book of Rights, written around A.D. 900 regulates the secession of the high kings at Tara.24

Brian became high-king in 1002 when he approached his former ally, Malachy, and requested the King of Meath either fight or give up to him peacefully. Malachy called upon his allies in the Ui Neill family but received no help. For twelve years Brian ruled as King of all Ireland. He spend most of that time enforcing his claim. Every lower king unified with him for a time. However, the dynasties that ruled from long before Brian's time were irreparably broken.25

Brian's high-kingship brought about new ideas concerning that title and renewed many old ideas. In 1004 to 1005 Brian took a circuit around Ireland. He started at Kincora, his capital in Thomond and circled the island sunwise or clockwise in the ancient tradition of always following the sun. He also collected the tribute due him as highking. These tributes included cattle, jewels, slaves, weapons, garments and silver.26

In Ulster he visited Armagh. There they acknowledged him in the Book of Armagh as Imperium Scotorum a position not all that different from Charlemagne.27 In the Annals of Ulster he is described as "High-king of the Irish of Ireland and of the foreigners and the Welsh, the Augustus of the whole of Northwest Europe."28

Here, one might ask something about the wives of Brian Boru, especially his last. Brian apparently has many wives which was typical of an Irish King. However, as Brian was also a good Christian, there is no evidence to say that he co-habitated with any more than one at a time.29 Gormflath, a Danish Princess and Brian's last and most notorious wife, previously been married to Olaf, the King of Dublin, and to Malachy. After Brian's death she reportedly offered herself in marriage to the Sigurd, a Norsemen from the Orkneys and Brian's enemy.30 Together, Brian and Gormflath, produced one son, Donnchad, and it was apparently for her sake he set Sitric as king of Dublin and put her brother Malemora in charge of Leinster.31

By the beginning of the 11th century, Brian had risen from the position of second son of a petty ruler to King of Munster, Southern Ireland and finally king of all Ireland (see figure 2.) Despite his glory and honor he did not establish an effective government that could carry on after him.32 On the other hand, the significance of Brian's High-Kingship and the ard ri in general, relies less in the thing itself than in the underlying trends which it reveals. 32

Nationalist

Nations of Europe assumed shape during the middle ages and believe it or not Ireland ranked right up there among them.33 What, however, is a nation? A nation can be identified by its language, common racial stock, geography and political institutions.34 All the Irish spoke the same language despite their fighting. They come form the same racial stock and could, at least, separate themselves from the invaders. Ireland's geography is easy to identify. They all lived on the same rock and finally their political institutions were somewhat uniform.35

The Irish developed a sense of belonging to a larger community or.36 One of the first reasons they developed this was in opposition to the Norse invaders.37 The second reasons included the folklore, racial memories, mythology, dynastic propaganda and genealogies that were spread by the bards and the druids. (If you are a school kids and steal this paper and put your name on it someone will find out.) They preserved all these for the whole of Ireland. As early as the seventh century, the Gaels created elaborate legend of their origins. This embraced all the tribes and dynasties. They, therefore, were united in their ancestry. The Irish combined political fragmentation with cultural unity.38

The final reason the Irish clans began to unite was because it had become politically useful to do so. In pre-Christian times, at least 150 separate tribes existed. However, by the time of Brian Boru, only 30 existed. The strongest of these or, at least, the longest lasting was the Ui Neill dynasty. It began in mythic history with the hero Niall of the Nine Hostages. The family first organized in Connachta and spread into the north and midland. The Ui Neill cut across ancient provincial divisions and broke away from tribalism and established the high-kinship at Tara.39

Brian Boru fit into this political picture. He conquered and united numberless factions.40 This nation, however, did not last long after Brian's death at Clontarf. The battle of Clontarf in 1014 was part of the revolt of Leinster against the dominance of that upstart Brian Boru.41 Meeting just north of Dublin, the Irish defeated the Leinstermen. Too old to fight, Brian prayed in his tent during the battle. However, some fleeing Vikings found him and killed him . His son Murchad won the day but was killed in battle, destroying the only strong successor Brian could have had.

The Leinstermen allied themselves with the Danes of Dublin and other Norsemen for the Orkneys.42 The fact that the Irish united with the Norse was not unusual or unpatriotic. Actually, the Norsemen played an important but secondary role in the rebellion.43 The problem with Brian Boru's success is that it destroyed the only unity that the Ui Neill family developed.44 Every high-king who ruled after Brian tried his means but could not justify their positions. The chroniclers listed them as "kings with opposition.45

	That Brian was immediately missed is evident in a poem called "Kincora" by MacLiag, Brian's secretary. It tells of the destruction of Brian's palace at Kincora. However, it also describes the political destruction after Brian's death.

Oh where, Kinkora! is Brian the Great,
And where is the beauty that once was thine?
O where are the princes and nobles that sate
At the feasts in thy halls, and drank the red wine?
Where, O Kinkora?

O where, Kinkora! are thy valorous lords?
O whither, thou hospitable! are they gone?
O where are the Dalcassions of the golden swords?
And where are the warriors Brian lead on?
Where, O Kinkora?

They are gone, those heroes of royal birth
Who plundered no churches , and broke no trust;
'T is weary for me to be living on earth
When they, O Kinkora, lie low in the dust.
Low , O Kinkora!

O never again will princes appear,
To rival the Dalcassians of the cleaving swords;
I can never dream of meeting afar or anear,
In the east or the west, such heroes and lords!
Never, Kinkora! 46

With the death of Brian Boru, the time of Iron Age Celtic heroes came to an end.47 However, the glory of Brian's victories lives on. The historians of the eleventh and twelfth century Ireland elaborated and embroidered the concept of his heroism and high-kingship.48 In the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries his nationalism became a symbol of the nationalist of that time. William Butler Yeats counted Brian among the many who died for Cathleen Ni Houlihan, his personification of Ireland. Daniel O'Connell scheduled a meeting at Clontarf just after his meeting at the hill of Tara. While the authorities stopped the gathering at Clontarf, O'Connell saw how drawing on the heroic past of Brian Boru appealed to his contemporaries who were prepared to admire and approve of this idea.49 Eamon De Varlera did the same thing when he described his constituents as descendants of Brian.50

In a way we are all sons and daughters of Brian Boru. Any later Irish theme can be read into his history from ill timed foul weather to a treacherous woman with all the tragedy and melancholy one could take. Brian captured the imagination of all of future Ireland when he won its land in 1014. Had he lived past that date one could argue Ireland's future could have passed much brighter. Then again that brightness could have come if he had not lived or risen to power at all. As it stands, Brian symbolizes Ireland, fighting and dying to save his land from foreign invaders.

Notes

1 M.P. Justin McCarthy, Ed., Irish Literature (New York: Bigelow Smith and Co.) Vol. viii.

2 Giovanni A. Costigan, History of Modern Ireland (New York: Pegasus, 1969) 32.

3 Encyclopedia Americana, (1989) Vol. 14. 144.

4 A.C. Partridge, Language and Society in Anglo-Irish Literature (Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1984) 92.

5 Costigan, 32.

6 Harold Orel, Ed., Irish History and Cultural Aspects of a People's Heritage (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1976) 87.

7 Edmund Curtis, A History of Ireland (London: Methumen & Co.,1936) 29.

8 Costigan, 32.

9 Curtis, History, 26.

10 Ibid.

11 Orel, 33.

12 Curtis, History, 25.

13 Orel, 34.

14 Curtis, History, 25.

15 A. J. Otway-Ruthven, A History of Medieval Ireland (New York: St. martins, 1980) 24-25.

16 Costigan, 32.

17 Websters II

18 D. Geroge Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland (Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins, 1982) 27.

19 Costigan, 6.

20 Francis John Byrne, Irish Kings and High-Kings (New York: St. Martins's, 1973) 266.

21 Boyce, 27.

22 Byrne, 261.

23 Ibid., 262.

24 Partridge, 17.

25 Curtis, History , 28.

26 Edmund Curtis, A History of Medieval Ireland: from 1086 to 1513 (New York: Barnes & noble, 1968)xxiii.

27 Byrne, 259.

28 Ibid.

29 Alfred P. Smyth, Celtic Leinster: Towards an Historical Geography of Early Irish Civilization A D 500-1600 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1982) 78.

30 Curtis, History, 27.

31 Ibid., 28.

32 Boyce, 27.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid ., 26-27.

35 Americana Vol. 19, 731.

36 Boyce, 27-28.

37 Ibid. 28.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid.

40 McCarthy, Vol 9. viii.

41 Boyce, 29

42 Costigan, 32

43 Boyce, 29.

44 Curtis, Medieval. xix.

45 Curtis, History, 31.

46 McCarthy, Vol. 6, 2377. verses 1,2,8 & 9.

47 Byrne, 71.

48 Boyce, 27.

49 Orel, 233.

50 Boyce, 21.