[10][note 2] Torcall's rise to power seems to have occurred at about a time when Kingdom of Dublin was closely aligned with Diarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster.

[10] The latter lost control of Dublin in 1141, however, as the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters reveals that the town was seized and held by Conchobar Ua Briain, overlord of Munster.

[20][note 3] At one point, the sources report that the Dubliners demanded two thousand captives or cattle for their assistance,[22] a pay-off that evinces the kingdom's interest in the continuing twelfth-century slave trade.

[23] Contemporary sources reveal that a desire to extinguish the Irish Sea slave trade was one of the reasons the English used to justify their twelfth-century conquests in Ireland.

[31] Although Ottar could well have enjoyed the cooperation of the Meic Torcaill in the early part of his reign, the Annals of Tigernach and Chronicon Scotorum reveal that they were responsible for his slaying in 1148.