page_title: Domnall Gerrlámhach
section_title: Kingship of Dublin
hierarchical_section_title: Domnall Gerrlámhach / Kingship of Dublin
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 34r of Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 503 (the Annals of Inisfallen). The excerpt reads in Gaelic "Cath Átha Clíath la Domnall Ua m-Briain i torchratar mathe Lagen im macc Murchada ocus im Ua Conchobair Failgig, ocus Domnall Ua Conchobair mc. ríg Cíarraige Lúachra &amp; alii multí occísí sunt do feraib Muman". The first man referred to is Domnall Gerrlámhach, King of Dublin (died 1135).
context_page_description: Domnall Gerrlámhach, also known as Domnall Gerrlámhach Ua Briain, Domnall mac Muirchertaig, and Domnall Ua Briain, was an obscure twelfth-century Uí Briain dynast and King of Dublin. He was one of two sons of Muirchertach Ua Briain, High King of Ireland. Domnall's father appears to have installed him as King of Dublin in the late eleventh- or early twelfth century, which suggests that he was his father's successor-designate. Although Domnall won a remarkable victory in the defence of the Kingdom of Dublin in the face of an invasion from the Kingdom of Leinster in 1115, he failed to achieve the successes of his father. After his final expulsion from Dublin at the hands of Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht, and the death of his father, Domnall disappears from record until his own death in 1135. He was perhaps survived by two sons.
context_section_description: In 1114, the power of a now gravely ill Muirchertach Ua Briain's began to waver. The kingship of Munster was temporarily seized by Muirchertach Ua Briain's half-brother, Diarmait Ua Briain. The record of a grant to Christ Church Cathedral, in which Domnall is styled "King of Ireland", appears to suggest that he attempted to assert a claim to the kingship as well. In fact, the fifteenth-century Mac Carthaigh's Book specifically states that Domnall was installed in the kingship of Dublin by his father in 1114. Although Muirchertach Ua Briain's problems were lessened with the death Domnall mac Taidc in 1115, within the year the co-kings of Leinster—Donnchad mac Murchada and Conchobar Ua Conchobair Failge, King of Uí Failge—took advantage of his own decline, and attempted to gain control of Dublin by way of a major assault upon the town. In fact, Domnall's father and grandfather had excluded the Kingdom of Leinster from overlordship of Dublin for the last forty years. Furthermore, not only was Conchobar was an unremitting opponent of Domnall's father, but Donnchad possessed several links to the kingship of Dublin as he was married to Domnall mac Taidc's sister, and further had a claim of his own, as both his father and grandfather—Murchad and Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó—held the kingship during their own careers.
  The prospect of enduring overlordship from nearby Leinster, as compared to the more distant and anaemic overlordship of Munster, appears to have compelled the Dubliners to oppose the Leinstermen. The ensuing battle itself is recorded by both the fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster and the eleventh- to fourteenth-century Annals of Inisfallen, which reveal that it was Domnall himself who marshalled the forces of Munster to victory. Considering Munster's weakened state, his triumph in Dublin was remarkable achievement. Unfortunately for Donnchad, however, he lost his life in the encounter; and according to the thirteenth-century ecclesiast Giraldus Cambrensis, the Dubliners added insult to injury by burying his corpse with that of a dog as a show of contempt to the Leinstermen. There is uncertainty as to when Domnall originally gained the kingship of Dublin. His father could have installed him as such upon assuming the Irish high-kingship, or perhaps following the aforesaid ousting of Gofraid Crobán in 1094—although it is not impossible that Domnall mac Taidc was installed as king at this point instead. Another possibility is that Domnall had been appointed king not long before his victory over the Leinstermen—perhaps upon his father's failing health in 1114—or else not long after his successful defence of Dublin. Whatever the case, the evidence of Domnall's kingship indicates that Muirchertach Ua Briain was the third consecutive claimant to the high-kingship to appoint an intended successor to the kingship of Dublin.
  Although Muirchertach Ua Briain recovered enough to regain power in Munster within the year, Dublin was later lost to Donnchad's kinsman and Leinster successor, Diarmait mac Énna meic Murchada, King of Leinster, who died there in 1117. Meanwhile, as Muirchertach Ua Briain's power continued to evaporate, the authority of Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht ever increased. In 1118, several sources, such as the sixteenth-century Annals of Loch Cé, the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters, the twelfth-century Chronicon Scotorum, and the Annals of Tigernach, indicate that Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair gained control of Dublin. In fact, the later source specifies that he had driven Domnall from the kingship once and for all, revealing that Domnall had regained the kingship following Diarmait mac Énna's death in 1117. Although this source also relates that hostages from the "northern half of Ireland" were recovered from Dublin by Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair, a statement perhaps indicative of the power that Domnall managed to preserve over northern realms once firmly under his father's suzerainty, at his height Domnall's father had been one of the most successful Uí Briain monarchs, and Domn
caption: Excerpt from folio 34r of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 503 (the Annals of Inisfallen) concerning Domnall's participation in the defence of Dublin in 1115.[23] Domnall's name appears in the top two lines of script.
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