A Kingdom Under Strain
The most consequential development was a severe illness suffered by Tairdelbach Ua Briain. The Annals of Tigernach place this affliction firmly in 1085 and describe it as so grave that his hair fell out. No diagnosis is possible, and the chronicler’s vivid detail should not be turned into one. What matters politically is that the dominant king in Ireland was visibly weakened. He recovered sufficiently to live into the following year, dying at Cenn Corad, or Kincora, in July 1086, but 1085 marked the beginning of the end of his long supremacy.