Conn Bacach’s Rainy Accession
Archived: 18 October 2026
Abstract
In 1519, Ireland’s political map did not change by a single royal decree or a decisive field battle. It shifted through deaths, installations, raids, disease and a difficult agricultural season. The most consequential development was in Ulster, where Conn Bacach Ó Néill succeeded his half-brother Art Óg as The Ó Néill, lord of Tír Eógain. Elsewhere, the deaths of leading figures in Connacht and Leinster altered local balances of power, while the departure of Gerald FitzGerald, ninth earl of Kildare, for England exposed the fragility of the Dublin administration. Contemporary Irish annals also preserve unusually direct evidence of hardship: plague