The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Ireland defoj'e the Conquest.
was waged between the chiefs of the northern Hy Niells,
now styled O'Lochlain— for in Brian Boroime's time surnames
came into use—the chiefs of the O'Briens, and the
chiefs of the O'Conners, sovereigns of Connacht ; and in
the year 1119, in the notice of the death of Murrogh
O'Brien, he is styled King of Ireland, and in the same
year Turlogh O'Conner of Connacht is also styled King of
Ireland, while on the death of DomhnuU O'Lochlainn, in
1 121, he is said to have been twenty-seven years in the
sovereignty of Ireland. From this time the contest- seems
to have been mainly between the houses of O'Lochlain and
O'Conner, but attempts were made to assert themselves
both by the Princes of Leinster and by the O'Briens ; and,
in 1
1 37, we read that the notorious Dermott MacMurrogh,
Prince of Leinster, was making pretensions to the sove-
reignty, and that having established the chief of the
O'Briens in the supreme sovereignty of Munster, he
exacted homage from him. In 1156, Murrogh O'Loch-
lainn is styled King of Ireland, and in the same year, in
the record of his death, Turlogh O'Conner is styled King
of Ireland " v, ith opposition," and his son, Roderick
O'Conner, is said to have assumed the sovereignty of
Connacht, and procured the submission of O'Brien. For
ten years Murrogh O'Lochlainn contended for the sove-
reignty, until, in 1 166, he was killed in a contest with the
Chief of Oirghialla, a part of Ulster, who led an army
against him because he had killed certain chiefs in viola-
tion of the protection of the successor of Patrick, of the
Chief of Oirghialla himself, and of the " relics, laity, and
clergy of the North of Ireland ;" and in the record of his
death he is styled " Monarch of all Ireland, the chief lamp
of the valour, chivalry, hospitality, and prowess of the west
of the world in his time." On his death, Roderick
O'Conner, his rival, led an army against his tribe and
procured their submission ; he then entered Meath and
procured the submission of that kingdom, and then with the
army of Counacht, Meath and other allies he marched to