Fractured Peace
The most active named king in the year’s record is Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, king of Mide and claimant to the kingship of Ireland. In 1017 the annals credit him with inflicting a slaughter on the “foreigners” and the Laigin at or near Odhba. “Foreigners” in these entries normally means the Hiberno-Scandinavian population and forces of towns such as Dublin, while the Laigin were the men of Leinster. The notice is short, but politically suggestive: Máel Sechnaill was still campaigning against the Dublin-Leinster alignment that had been central to the struggle culminating at Clontarf.