Tara’s Three-Night Reckoning
Under the annal-year 980, Domnall ua Néill, overking of Ireland and king of Tara, died at Armagh after penance. His death made succession urgent among the dominant Uí Néill kindreds. Máel Sechnaill, son of Domnall mac Donnchada of Clann Cholmáin in Mide, emerged as the new ruler. Chronicon Scotorum explicitly says that he began to reign over Ireland, while the Annals of Tigernach record that “Máel Sechnaill the Great” began to rule. Such titles reveal political aspiration as much as settled constitutional fact. They nevertheless show that contemporaries or near-contemporaries understood this as a transfer of authority of island-wide consequence.