Corc mac Luigthig (340-379),
[Genealogy of the House of Mac-Carthy formerly Sovereign of the Two Momonies or Southern Ireland, P. Louis Lainé, pg. 26, https://celt.ucc.ie/published/F830000-001.html] also called Conall Corc, Corc of Cashel, and Corc mac Láire, is the hero of
Irish language
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
tales which form part of the origin legend of the
Eóganachta
The Eóganachta (Modern , ) were an Irish dynasty centred on Rock of Cashel, Cashel which dominated southern Ireland (namely the Kingdom of Munster) from the 6/7th to the 10th centuries, and following that, in a restricted form, the Kingdom of De ...
, a group of kindreds which traced their descent from Conall Corc and took their name from his ancestor
Éogan Mór. The early kindred they belonged to are known as the
Deirgtine. He was probably a grandson of
Ailill Flann Bec, and possible cousins were
Dáire Cerbba
Dáire Cerbba (or Cerba, Cearba, Cearb; meaning "Silver Dáire" or "Dáire the Sharp/Cutting") was a 4th-century Irish dynast who was evidently a king of late prehistoric central northern Munster, called Medón MairtÃne at the time. A frequen ...
and the famous
Crimthann mac Fidaig. The latter is his opponent in a celebrated cycle of stories.
Biography
The name and identity of Corc's actual father is something of a mystery, however. While certainly belonging to the kindred of the proto-Eóganachta, he is inconsistently named in the genealogies and tales as Lugaid or Láre. Further confusion is caused by the fact that a certain Láre Fidach is named as the father of Crimthann in one, although not necessarily the oldest, source (Laud 610), because this would rather implausibly make him and Corc brothers. In the tales Crimthann is his uncle or cousin. David Sproule more or less gets around this by arguing that Corc's father should be Lugaid Láre and that the Laud pedigree has been misread and/or is erroneous.
One of the two wives of Conall Corc was
Aimend, daughter of
Óengus Bolg, king of the
Corcu LoÃgde
The Corcu LoÃgde (Corcu Lóegde, Corco Luigde, Corca Laoighdhe, Laidhe), meaning Gens of the Calf Goddess, also called the SÃl Lugdach meic Itha, were a kingdom centred in West County Cork who descended from the proto-historical rulers of M ...
. The other, the daughter of the King of the
Picts
The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Scotland in the early Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pic ...
, is stated in the genealogies to have been
Mongfind, although she is likely confused with an Irish queen of the same name, who may or may not have been Crimthann mac Fidaig's sister.
These tales include:
* ''
Senchas Fagbála Caisil'' (The story of the finding of
Cashel
Cashel (an Anglicised form of the Irish language word ''Caiseal'', meaning "stone fort") may refer to:
Places in Ireland
*Cashel, County Tipperary
**The Rock of Cashel, an ancient, hilltop fortress complex for which Cashel is named
** Archbishop ...
)
* ''Conall Corc 7 RÃge Caisil'' (Conall Corc and the Kingship of Cashel)
* ''Comthoth Lóegairi co 7 a aided'' (The Conversion of Lóegaire to the Faith and his Violent Death)
* ''Conall Corc 7 Corco LoÃgde'' (Conall Corc and the Corco LoÃgde)
References
Sources
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*
*
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Further reading
* Downey, Clodagh, "Medieval Literature about Conall Corc", in ''Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society'' (2005): pp. 21–32.
* Sproule, David, "Origins of the Éoganachta", in ''Ériu 35'' (1984): pp. 31–37.
* Sproule, David, "Politics and pure narrative in the stories about Corc of Cashel", in ''Ériu 36'' (1985): pp. 11–28.
Legendary Irish kings
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