Leinster’s Turning Point
The surviving annals provide no continuous narrative of 1042. They record selected battles, deaths, burnings and ecclesiastical successions, usually without exact dates or explanations. Their chronologies also differ. The burning of Ferns and the retaliatory attack on Glenn Uissen are placed under 1042 by the Annals of Ulster and Annals of Loch Cé, but under 1041 by Chronicon Scotorum and the Four Masters. These events can therefore be securely associated with the crisis culminating in 1042, though not assigned to a particular day or even, with complete confidence, to that calendar year.