Pilgrims and Raids
The wider political setting of 1028 was the unstable period after the deaths of Brian Bórama in 1014 and Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill in 1022. Donnchad mac Briain, Brian’s son and king of Munster, had attempted to extend Dál Cais authority beyond Munster, and in 1026 the annals describe him taking hostages from Mide, Brega, Dublin, Leinster and Osraige. Yet his reverse in Osraige in 1027 showed that this reach was not secure. The year 1028 therefore belongs to a phase in which no claim to island-wide authority can be treated as settled. Power was negotiated through hostages, cattle spoils, strategic marriages, church patronage and opportunistic raids.