page_title: Echmarcach mac Ragnaill
section_title: Uncertain parentage
hierarchical_section_title: Echmarcach mac Ragnaill / Uncertain parentage
caption_attribution_description: English: Map illustrating some places named in the English Wikipedia article Echmarcach mac Ragnaill (died 1064/1065).
context_page_description: Echmarcach mac Ragnaill was a dominant figure in the eleventh-century Irish Sea region. At his height, he reigned as king over Dublin, the Isles, and perhaps the Rhinns of Galloway. The precise identity of Echmarcach's father, Ragnall, is uncertain. One possibility is that this man was one of two eleventh-century rulers of Waterford. Another possibility is that Echmarcach's father was an early eleventh-century ruler of the Isles. If any of these identifications are correct, Echmarcach may have been a member of the Uí Ímair kindred.
  Echmarcach first appears on record in about 1031, when he was one of three kings in northern Britain who submitted to Knútr Sveinnsson, ruler of the Anglo-Scandinavian Empire. Echmarcach is recorded to have ruled over Dublin in 1036–1038 and 1046–1052. After losing Dublin for the final time, he appears to have been seated in the Isles on Mann. In 1061, about a decade after his final defeat in Dublin, Echmarcach appears to have been expelled from the Isles, and may have then fallen back into Galloway.
  Echmarcach appears to have forged an alliance with the powerful Uí Briain.
context_section_description: Echmarcach was the son of a man named Ragnall. Whilst Echmarcach bore a Gaelic name, the name of his father is ultimately derived from Old Norse, a fact that serves to exemplify the hybrid nature of the eleventh-century Irish Sea region, The identity of Echmarcach's father is uncertain. One possibility is that Ragnall was a member of the dynasty that ruled the Norse-Gaelic enclave of Waterford in tenth- and eleventh centuries. If so, Echmarcach may have been the son of one of two Waterfordian rulers: Ragnall mac Ímair, King of Waterford, or this man's apparent son, Ragnall ua Ímair, King of Waterford. Another possibility is that Echmarcach belonged to a family from the Isles, and that his father was Ragnall mac Gofraid, King of the Isles, son and possible successor of Gofraid mac Arailt, King of the Isles. As a descendant of either of the aforesaid families, Echmarcach would appear to have been a member of the Uí Ímair, a royal dynasty descended from the Scandinavian sea-king Ímar.
caption: Locations relating to Echmarcach and his contemporaries in Britain and Ireland.
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