Colmán’s Fall585 CE
The year 585 is sparsely documented in the Irish annals, but the surviving notices allow a close comparison of how different compilations place the same events. The Annals of Ulster, the Annals of Tigernach, the Annals of the Four Masters, and the Annals of Inisfallen all preserve material that can be aligned with this year, though not always with the same wording or numbering. Several texts record a royal death and one battle; some also attach alternative year placements or later cross-references. This account confines itself to directly attested notices and observable differences in presentation, dating, and overlap among the annals.
Dateline
Year Setting
The year 585 appears in several annalistic sequences as a dated notice rather than as a continuous narrative. In the Annals of Ulster, the relevant cluster includes U586.0, which carries the printed heading AD 585, followed by U586.1 and U586.2. The Annals of Tigernach mark the same year under Annal T585, while the Four Masters print M585 as The Age of Christ, 585. These headings show that each compilation preserves a year-labelled notice, even when its internal numbering differs. [1] [2] [3]
The Inisfallen annals also align a notice with this year, though by a different system of cross-reference. AI585.1 records the death of Feradach son of Dui, king of Osraige, and gives parallels to AU 583 and 584 rather than to a printed AD year. Because the annals use different frameworks, comparison here stays with the notices as they stand in each text. The evidence for 585 is therefore a small set of entries, not a continuous annalistic sequence. [4] [1] [3]
Royal Deaths
A royal death is the clearest notice attached to 585 in these texts. In the Annals of Ulster, U585.1 records the repose of Mac Nisi, abbot of Cluain Moccu Nóis, while U585.2 gives the death of Aed son of Suibne, king of Maenmag. The same annal later reuses the monastic notice under U591.2, but that later placement belongs to a different year-heading and is not the same entry. [1]
The Four Masters present the year with similar kinds of death notices, though not the same persons. Under M585.2 they record the death of Breanainn, lord of Teathbha, and add that he had earlier granted Dearmhagh to God and to Colum Cille. In the next entry, M585.3 records the death of Baetan, son of Cairell, king of Ulidia. [3]
Battle Records
The battle evidence for 585 is clearest in the Ulster and Tigernach annals. AU U586.1 records the killing of Baetán son of Ninnid son of Daui, identified there as king of Temair, and U586.2 adds that this was the year of the battle of Druim Meic Erca. Tigernach’s Annal T585 places a battle at Nélach Daethi, in which Colmán Bec son of Diarmait fell, and identifies Aed son of Ainmire as victor. The two annals preserve different battle notices under the same year label. [1] [2]
The Four Masters also record a battle for the same year, but with a different place-name and outcome. M585.4 states that the battle of Magh Ochtair was gained by Bran Dubh, son of Eochaidh, over the Uí Neill, at the hill over Cluain Conaire to the south. In the next annalistic cluster this battle is repeated under the following year-heading. That difference is best treated as a difference in placement rather than as a harmonized chronology. [3]
Comparative Dating
The annals do not agree on how closely the same notices should be aligned. The Annals of Ulster place the death of Baetán son of Ninnid in the year that carries AD 585, while Tigernach places the corresponding battle material under Annal T585 without a printed AD line in the excerpt. Inisfallen gives AI585.1 for Feradach son of Dui and supplies bracketed cross-references to AU 583 and 584. These are separate documentary forms of dating, not a single unified statement. [1] [2] [4]
The same year also appears beside notices that are not treated in exactly the same way from text to text. In the Ulster sequence, U586.0 gives the year heading AD 585; Tigernach uses the formula Annal T585; and the Four Masters use The Age of Christ, 585. The evidence is therefore editorially comparable, but each source presents the year in its own language and ordering. No excerpt here supports collapsing these systems into one chronology. [1] [2] [3]
Source Relations
The Inisfallen annals often present a compressed relationship to the other chronicles. AI585.1 for Feradach son of Dui is accompanied by cross-references to AU 583 and 584, not to a direct AD statement. AI586.1 then gives a notice for the grandsons of Crítán, showing that the adjacent year entries continue, but without the same royal and battle detail found in Ulster or Tigernach. For 585, the most secure comparison is therefore one of wording and placement, not of inferred correspondence beyond what is printed. [4]
The Four Masters provide the most explicit calendrical label in the material here, but that label should not be treated as a correction of the others. M585 opens with The Age of Christ, 585, and then gives the deaths of Breanainn and Baetan. Because the other annals preserve different sequence markers, the comparison remains descriptive: one compilation marks a religious lord, another a king, and the Ulster and Tigernach texts preserve battle notices beside royal deaths. The year is thus securely attested, but not uniformly narrated. [3] [1] [2]
Year Focus
Taken together, the notices for 585 are limited but clear. Ulster links the year to the death of Aed son of Suibne and to the killing of Baetán son of Ninnid; Tigernach links it to the battle of Nélach Daethi and the fall of Colmán Bec; the Four Masters link it to the deaths of Breanainn and Baetan; Inisfallen records Feradach son of Dui with cross-references that place the notice in a neighboring annalistic frame. These are distinct records, not one reconciled event list. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The surviving notices for the year are therefore best read as parallel records of a small number of deaths and one or more battles, each text preserving its own arrangement. No excerpt here supplies a fuller narrative for 585, and none justifies adding motives, consequences, or missing events. What can be said securely is confined to the named persons, the battle references, and the year headings printed in these four annalistic witnesses. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Source References
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