Archived: 23 October 2026
Abstract
In 1345, the sharpest political struggle in the English lordship of Ireland unfolded not at a frontier ford but across the towns, castles and lordships of Munster. Sir Ralph Ufford, justiciar of Ireland and the king’s chief governor, moved against Maurice fitz Thomas FitzGerald, first earl of Desmond. Their quarrel exposed a basic weakness in royal administration: the Crown needed the co-operation of the great Anglo-Irish magnates, yet Ufford sought to discipline them with an unusually forceful assertion of central authority.The year also brought a violent change of ruler in Connacht, fighting upon Lough Neagh in Ulster, and smaller but
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Archived: 27 October 2026
Abstract
In 945, annals recorded an exceptional frost that froze lakes and rivers, altering travel without proving famine. Domnall son of Muirchertach and Flaithbertach killed the Scandinavian-associated force on Lough Neagh and destroyed its fleet, ending the last clear record of such lake-based power. In Dublin, Blacair yielded rule to Amlaíb Cuarán, whose alliance with Congalach of Brega defeated followers of Ruaidrí Ua Canannáin in Conaille. Deaths included ecclesiastics Máel Tuile and Máel Dúin, prior of Armagh, and Aurchad, king of western Connacht. These notices reveal interconnected regional dynasties, churches, waterways and maritime centres amid shifting power across the Irish island.
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Archived: 27 October 2026
Abstract
The surviving record for 930 is unusually revealing not because it describes one island-wide war, but because several annals catch armed Scandinavian groups operating at three inland waters: Loch Bethrach in Osraige, Lough Neagh in the north, and the routes connected with the Shannon and Limerick. The sharpest event was the assault on Derc Ferna in Osraige. The Annals of Ulster say that Gofraid, grandson of Ímar, came with the foreigners of Dublin and ‘razed’ the place, an act presented as extraordinary even by the standards of earlier devastation. Chronicon Scotorum calls it a siege and capture, adding a grave,
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