Power and Pilgrimage
No ruler exercised secure authority over all Ireland in 1051. Since the death of Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill in 1022, several powerful provincial kings had competed for wider supremacy. Donnchad mac Briain, son of Brian Bóruma, still ruled Munster and maintained claims extending beyond it, but his position was increasingly vulnerable. Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó was consolidating Leinster and would seize direct control of Dublin in 1052. Niall mac Eochada remained a formidable king of Ulaid, while Connacht was ruled by Áed Ua Conchobair, known in later tradition as Áed in Gaí Bernaig, ‘of the gapped spear’.