Cormac mac Cuilennáin

Cormac mac Cuilennáin (died 13 September 908) was an Irish bishop and the king of Munster from 902 until his death at the Battle of Bellaghmoon.

Above these stood the five great provincial kingships whose names survive in the provinces of Ireland: Connacht, Leinster, Ulster, Meath, and Cormac's Munster.

[4] In Cormac's time the High Kingship was held by Flann Sinna of the Clann Cholmáin branch of the southern Uí Néill.

[7] Some later accounts claim that Cormac had been married or betrothed to Gormlaith, daughter of Flann Sinna, the High King of Ireland, but instead took vows of celibacy.

writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography suggests these are later fictions and historian Francis John Byrne saw an echo of earlier tales of the sovereignty goddess in them.

The surviving record, written largely from a northern and pro-Uí Néill perspective, presents a misleading picture and understates the power and pretensions of the Eóganachta.

[11] The southern Annals of Innisfallen report campaigns in 907 by Cormac in Connacht and Mide, where Flann Sinna was defeated at Mag Lena, and record a fleet operating on the River Shannon on his orders which captured Clonmacnoise.

[13] After the army of Munster had gathered, Flaithbertach mac Inmainén's horse stumbled and threw him to the ground while riding through the camp; it was taken to be a very bad omen.

[17]Following Cormac's death, Munster was seemingly without a king for some years until Flaithbertach mac Inmainén was chosen, apparently another compromise candidate.

[20] The Fragmentary Annals are equally glowing in their praise of Cormac's scholarship and piety: "A scholar in Irish and in Latin, the wholly pious and pure chief bishop, miraculous in chastity and in prayer, a sage in government, in all wisdom, knowledge and science, a sage of poetry and learning, chief of charity and every virtue; a wise man in teaching, high king of the two provinces of all Munster in his time.

"[21] A variety of works have been associated with Cormac, such as the Sanas Cormaic, a glossary of difficult words in Irish in the style of Isidore of Seville, which bears his name.