Cerball mac Dúnlainge
Cerball mac Dúnlainge (patronymic sometimes spelled Dúngaile, Irish: [ˈcaɾˠuːl̪ˠ mək ˈd̪ˠuːn̪ˠl̪ˠəɲə]) (died 888) was king of Ossory in south-east Ireland.
While the annals provide a considerable amount of information, they are generally terse, and most focus their attention on the doings of the Uí Néill, sometimes to the extent of omitting inconvenient events.
[7] A source which concentrates on Cerball's career is the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, so called because only fragments remain of a seemingly longer work, these again copied by Mac Fhirbhisigh in the 17th century from a 15th-century manuscript.
Joan Radner, editor and translator of the modern edition of the Fragmentary Annals, argues that these were compiled at the court of Cerball's great-great-grandson Donnchad mac Gilla Pátraic.
The basic framework is from the Chronicle of Ireland, but to this has been added a variety of material whose source is unknown, perhaps including early sagas, which concerns Cerball.
Perhaps inspired by the Fragmentary Annals, which offer some positive views of Vikings and may have been popular in the Norse-Gael Dublin of the 11th century, many Icelandic genealogies include Cerball—Kjarvalr Írakonungr—as an ancestor.
Osraige was atypical, much larger than this, covering perhaps 2000 square kilometres astride the River Barrow in the modern counties of Kilkenny, Laois, and Offaly.
[14] At the time of Cerball's birth Osraige lay within the province and kingdom of Munster, ruled by the Eóganachta from the royal centre of Cashel.
For a period in the seventh century, most of southern Osraige was ruled by the Corcu Loígde, rulers of Munster before the coming of the Eóganachta.
[16] While several kingdoms in Britain – East Anglia, Fortriu, Mercia, and Northumbria – would collapse under the shock of Viking attacks, their impact in Ireland was very much less immediate.
In the long run, the creation of Norse–Gaelic towns by Vikings operating as traders rather than raiders would change the Irish political landscape, but the results of this were seen in the tenth and eleventh centuries rather than the ninth.
[18] At this time the High King of Ireland was Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid who was married to Cerball's sister Land.
[19] The first report of Cerball is in 846, when Vikings attacked into northern Osraige, destroying a church at Coolcashin (near Galmoy), and plundering an unidentified settlement at Cúl Maine.
[21] The late Annals of the Four Masters record an invasion of Osraige in 848 by the Uí Ceinnselaig of southern Leinster, led by their king Echtigern mac Guaire.
Cerball himself fought hard in this battle, and the amount he had drunk the night before hampered him greatly, and he vomited much, and that gave him immense strength; and he urged his people loudly and harshly against the Norwegians, and more than half of the army was killed there, and those who escaped fled to their ships.
[29] In 860 Cerball defeated a force of Norse who were raiding in Osraige, and later in the year he joined Máel Sechnaill on campaign against Áed Finnliath in the north of Ireland.
[30] Máel Sechnaill died in 862 to be succeeded by Áed Finnliath, who married his widow, Cerball's sister Land.
Cerball is remembered in historical sources as a great and heroic king, possessed of victorious and daring exploits with many colourful anecdotes written about him.
He is mentioned in all the major Irish annals, bringing the Osraige into military prominence during his reign, securing a very strong marriage alliance with the high king and gaining political independence away from Munster.
Insofar as any conclusions have been reached by historians of Ireland, it appears that the supposed descendants of Cerball left for Iceland in the generation before Donnchad mac Gilla Patraic, towards the end of the tenth century.
Adding to the uncertainty, the genealogies of the Osraige themselves were subject to comprehensive rewriting in Cerball's time and immediately afterwards, attaching them to the Laigin of Leinster.
[37] Cerball is noted by historians to have been a patron of noteworthy building projects in his kingdom, and his reign likely birthed a flourishing of artistically fine stone carving in Osraige.
[38][39] In late February 2017, Kilkenny's new Medieval Mile Museum opened to the public, featuring an exhibit which highlights king Cerball's role as a powerful patron of Osraige's early high cross carving tradition.
He is also direct-male ancestor of the prominent clan Ua Braonáin (O'Brennan) of Uí Duach (Idough)[41] in Osraige who were a junior sept stemming from a younger son of Cerball.
