Dirath, Faelchar and Leinster
Archived: 2 November 2026
Abstract
In 692 CE, Ireland’s surviving annalistic record centres on Leinster and its western neighbour Osraige. The firmest items are terse but consequential: Dirath, bishop of Ferns, died; Bran, grandson of Faelán and king of Leinster, also died; and a battle between the Osraige and the Laigin cost the life of Faelchar, grandson of Máel Odor. These entries occur under the following annal heading in the Annals of Ulster, whose calendrical apparatus explicitly equates that heading with AD 692. The precision is important. Irish annals preserve a sequence of notices copied and reshaped over centuries, and their year numbers do not