Conall Grant’s Two Months
Archived: 1 November 2026
Abstract
In 718 CE, a battle at Cenannas – the place later known as Kells in County Meath – brought a violent turn in the long struggle for Brega. Conall Grant, grandson of Cernach, emerged as victor over a group of rival leaders, but his success was startlingly brief: the annals state that Fergal son of Máel Dúin killed him two months later. The year also brought deaths at major religious communities, a recorded change in Iona’s monastic observance, reports of remarkable portents, and a lunar eclipse. Together, these sparse notices reveal an Ireland in which dynastic politics, ecclesiastical authority and