22 Facts About Flann Sinna

Flann Sinna was King of Mide from 877 onwards and a High King of Ireland.

Flann Sinna's mother Land ingen Dungaile was a sister of Cerball mac Dunlainge, King of Osraige.

Flann Sinna's reign followed the usual pattern of Irish High Kings, beginning by levying hostages and tribute from Leinster and then to wars with Munster, Ulster, and Connacht.

Flann Sinna was captured, and drowned in Lough Owel, by Mael Sechnaill in 845.

Flann Sinna's reign began with a demand for hostages from the kings of Leinster.

The Annals of Ulster report that Flann Sinna was defeated in 887 by the "Foreigners" at the Battle of the Pilgrim.

In that year the Fair of Tailtiu was not held, a sign that Flann Sinna's authority was not unchallenged.

In 904, Flann Sinna broke into the Abbey of Kells in order to seize his son Donnchad, who had taken refuge there, and beheaded many of Donnchad's associates.

Flann Sinna undertook an expedition against his cousin Cellach mac Cerbaill, King of Osraige, in 905, after Cellach had succeeded his brother Diarmait earlier in the year.

In 910, now without the aid of Cerball, who had died of sickness, Flann Sinna defeated the men of Breifne.

Flann Sinna was followed as head of Clann Cholmain and king of Mide by his son Conchobar, and as king of Tara by Niall Glundub.

Flann Sinna was known to have been married to at least three different women, and his recorded children numbered seven sons and three daughters.

Flann's daughter Gormflaith ingen Flann Sinna became the subject of later literary accounts, which depicted her as a tragic figure.

Flann Sinna was married first to Cormac mac Cuilennain of the Eoganachta, who had taken vows of celibacy as a bishop.

The second of Flann Sinna's known marriages was his union with Eithne, daughter of Aed Findliath, dated circa 877.

Flann Sinna was the mother of Flann's son, Domnall, and his daughter, Ligach, wife of the Sil nAedo Slaine king of Brega, Mael Mithig mac Flannacain.

The description of Mael Ruanaid as "heir designate of Ireland" suggests to some that Flann Sinna planned to keep the kingship in his family, excluding the Cenel nEogain as the Cenel Conaill and Sil nAedo Slaine had previously been excluded.

Alex Woolf suggested that Flann Sinna had not only attempted to monopolise the succession within his family, but had come close to instituting a national kingship in Ireland comparable to that created by his contemporaries Alfred the Great and Edward the Elder in England from their Kingdom of Wessex.

Later Clann Cholmain kings were descended from Flann Sinna, as was Congalach Cnogba, whose official pedigree pronounced him to be a member of the Sil nAedo Slaine, the first of that branch of the Ui Neill to become King of Tara in two centuries, and whose last agnatic ancestor to have ruled from Tara was the eponymous Aed Slaine, ten generations before.

Flann Sinna's mother was Flann's daughter Ligach, and his paternal grandmother Eithne had been Flann's wife.

Flann Sinna was served by Mael Mura Othna, "chief poet of Ireland".

Flann Sinna is credited with commissioning the earliest known cumdach, an ornamented book case, for the Book of Durrow.