# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connor, Aedh

Áed Ua Conchobair in the ODNB.
​O'CONNOR, AEDH (d. 1067), king of Connaught, called by Irish historians ‘an gha bhearnaigh’ (‘of the clipped spear’), was son of Tadhg an eich ghill [see O'Connor, Cathal], and first appears in the chronicles in 1036, when he slew Maeleachlainn, lord of Creamhthaine, in revenge for the death of his father and brother by the hand of that chief. The O'Rourkes contended with him for the kingship of Connaught, and in 1039 he defeated them and slew their chief, Donnchadh the red; but in 1044 they inflicted a still ​more severe defeat on him, and he was again defeated by a lesser chief, O'Maeldoraigh, in 1051. He had before held as a prisoner Amhalghaidh O'Flaherty, king of West Connaught, whom he blinded in this year, and secured himself from his foes of East Connaught at Inis Creamha, on the east side of Loch Orbsen. He thence made an expedition against the Conmaicne, a tribe situated near Slieve Formaeile, co. Roscommon, and an expedition into Clare, when he cut down the tree of assembly of the O'Briens at Moyre, then called Aenach Maighe Adhair. He again plundered the Conmaicne in 1052, and Clare in 1054 and 1059, when he received the submission of the chief of the O'Briens. In 1061 he is first mentioned by his cognomen, no explanation of which is given in the best known chronicles. He sacked Cenncoradh, O'Brien's fortress on the Shannon, and burnt the neighbouring town of Killaloe. Solitary trout in wells or isolated pools are still regarded with veneration by the Irish in remote parts, and in 1061 O'Brien had two salmon in the well of Cenncoradh, which, by way of insult, O'Connor caught and ate. While he was on the Shannon, O'Flaherty attacked and destroyed his stronghold on Loch Orbsen; but when O'Connor returned he routed the O'Flahertys, slew their chief, and carried his head to Rathcroghan in Roscommon. In the next year he defeated the Clan Coscraigh, a tribe settled to the east of Galway Bay. In 1063 Ardgar MacLochlainn, king of Ailech, invaded Connaught, and both O'Connor and his rival O'Rourke were obliged to give him hostages and admit his supremacy. O'Connor had hidden his treasure and jewels in the cave of Aille in the parish of Aghagower, co. Mayo; but his old enemies, the Conmaicne, slew the guard and sacked the cave; but in 1065 he defeated them and their allies, the Ui Maine, under Tadhg O'Kelly, at Clonfert, and killed O'Kelly's sons and grandson some time after the battle. He soon after defeated and slew Duarcan O'Heolusa, chief of Muinter Eoluis, co. Leitrim. In 1066 he was concerned in the murder of the heir of O'Muiregain, chief of Teffia, co. Westmeath, a connection by marriage of his own, and it was perhaps in consequence of this outrage that he was attacked in 1067 by Dermot, son of Maelnambo, king of Leinster, and by the O'Briens. He had some success at first, and slew O'Connor Kerry; but in a battle near Oranmore, co. Galway, in which he was attacked by O'Rourke, he and many of his followers were slain. In a verse which preserves the date he is called ‘rí Connacht,’ king of Connaught, and he was undoubtedly the heir to that kingship, but exercised its rights without dispute for a very short part of his life, and never seems to have received the formal submission of all Connaught. He had five sons—Murchadh, slain in 1070; Roderic or Ruaidhri [q. v.] ‘na soighe buidh,’ or ‘of the yellow hound,’ who became king of Connaught, and died in 1118; Cathal; Tadhg, slain in 1062 by Aedh O'Flaherty; Aedh, who had two sons, Cathal and Tadhg—and one daughter, Aoibhean, who married O'Muiregain, and died in 1066.
[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vol. ii.; Genealogies, Tribes, and Customs of Hy Fiachrach, ed. O'Donovan, Dublin, 1844; Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many, ed. O'Donovan, Dublin, 1843; A Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught, by Roderic O'Flaherty, ed. Hardiman, Dublin, 1846.]
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