Ressad or Ress refers to a now lost city and possibly also to a territory that is still unidentified but believed by scholars to have been somewhere within the borders of modern
County Limerick
County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...
in western Ireland, in what was once the territory of the kingdom of the
Uí Fidgenti.
The name occurs in only a small number of surviving sources, which for this region of Ireland, of once respectable wealth, are generally quite poor.
Battle of Ressad
*
Túathal Techtmar
Colmán of Cloyne
According to the early tale known as ''
Conall Corc and the
Corcu Luigde'', Saint
Colmán of Cloyne
Colmán of Cloyne (530 – 606), also Colmán mac Léníne, was a monk, founder and patron of Cluain Uama, now Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland, and one of the earliest known Irish poets to write in the vernacular.Johnston, "Munster, saints of ( ...
cursed the city of Ressad, which brought down its walls.
Kings of Ressad
Only two Kings of Ressad are known from the surviving sources, both probably belonging to the second half of the 10th century.
The ''
Annals of Inisfallen
The ''Annals of Inisfallen'' () are a chronicle of the medieval history of Ireland.
Overview
There are more than 2,500 entries spanning the years between 433 and 1450. The manuscript is thought to have been compiled in 1092, as the chronic ...
'' style
Donnubán mac Cathail, until this time styled King of Uí Fidgenti, instead King of Ressad at his death in 980. He is the only king ever so styled in all the (surviving and intact)
Irish annals
A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over ti ...
.
The early 12th century saga and political tract ''
Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib
''Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib'' ("The War of the Irish with the Foreigners") is a medieval Irish text that tells of the depredations of the Vikings and Uí Ímair dynasty in Ireland and the Irish king Brian Boru's great war against them, begin ...
'' names the only other known King of Ressad as the otherwise unknown Flaithrí mac Allamarain, but who is said to belong to the 10th century like Donnubán and may have preceded him. The author of ''CGG'' states he was one of the Munster kings slain by
Ivar of Limerick circa 967 before the
Battle of Sulcoit. Notably Donnubán was Ivar's ally, and is said to have been his son-in-law, but none of this is specifically associated with Ressad in the passage.
Finally, whether related to Ress/Ressad or not, there is also a Flann Ressach in one of the Uí Cairbre (ancestral to O'Donovan and other families) pedigrees preserved in the
Book of Glendalough (this particular entry having been copied from the lost
Psalter of Cashel).
Reerasta Rath
It is possible that the
Ráth called ''Reerasta'', where was found the internationally famous
Ardagh Chalice (Hoard) in western County Limerick, is a corruption of ''Rí Ressad''.
[Bhreathnach]
See also
*
Ardagh Fort
Notes
References
*
*
Edel Bhreathnach
Edel Bhreathnach is an Irish historian and academic and former CEO of the Discovery Programme.
Bhreathnach was a Tara Research Fellow for the Discovery Programme from 1992 to 2000. In 2005 she was appointed Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Mícheál � ...
, "The cultural and political milieu of the deposition and manufacture of the hoard discovered at Reerasta Rath, Ardagh, Co. Limerick", in Mark Redknap (ed.), ''Pattern and Purpose in Insular Art''. Oxbow Books. 2001.
* Vernam Hull (tr.), "Conall Corc and the Corco Luigde", in ''Proceedings of the Modern Language Association 62'' (1947): 887–909
* Paul MacCotter, ''Colmán of Cloyne: A Study''. Dublin:
Four Courts Press
Four Courts Press is an independent Irish academic publishing house, with its office at Malpas Street, Dublin 8, Ireland.
Founded in 1970 by Michael Adams, who died in February 2009, its early publications were primarily theological, notably ...
. 1994.
* Paul MacCotter, ''Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions''. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2008.
*
Kuno Meyer
Kuno Meyer (20 December 1858 – 11 October 1919) was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I in the United States was a source of controversy. His brothe ...
(ed.)
"Conall Corc and the Corcu Luigde (Laud 610)" in ''Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts III''. Dublin: Hodges & Figgis. 1910. pp. 57–63
* William O'Brien, Nick Hogan & James O'Driscoll, "Archaeological Investigations at Ballylin Hillfort, Co. Limerick", in ''North Munster Antiquarian Journal'', Vol. 56, 2016.
*
James Henthorn Todd (ed. & tr.),
Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh: The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill'. London: Longmans. 1867.
{{Refend
History of County Limerick
Lost cities and towns
O'Donovan family