Raiders And Rivalries
The shadow of 1014 lay over the year. Brian’s death had not produced a single settled succession, either in Munster or in Ireland as a whole. Máel Sechnaill remained the senior claimant to island-wide authority, but no annal for 1019 presents him as directing the main events. Instead, the entries reveal a fractured political landscape in which Dublin, Munster, Leinster, the northern Uí Néill and smaller midland peoples all acted with considerable independence.