e period. The poems of Kenneth O'Hartigan are still
extant, as well as those of Eochd O'Flynn. The authorship of the _Wars
of the Gaedhil and the Gall_, has been attributed to Brian Boroimhe's
secretary, Mac Liag; it is, at least, tolerably certain that it was
written by one who witnessed the events described. The obituaries of
several saints also occur at the close of the tenth and commencement of
the eleventh centuries. Amongst these we find St. Duncheadh, Abbot of
Clonmacnois, who is said to have been the last Irish saint who raised
the dead. St. Aedh (Hugh) died in the year 1004, "after a good life, at
Ard-Macha, with great honour and veneration." And in the year 1018, we
have the mortuary record of St. Gormgal, of Ardvilean, "the remains of
whose humble oratory and cloghan cell are still to be seen on that rocky
island, amid the surges of the Atlantic, off the coast of
Connemara."[230]

Dr. Todd has well observed, in his admirably written "Introduction" to
the _Wars of the Gaedhil and the Gall_, that from the death of Malachy
to the days of Strongbow, the history of Ireland is little more than a
history of the struggles for ascendency between the great clans or
families of O'Neill, O'Connor, O'Brien, and the chieftains of Leinster.

After the death of Brian Boroimhe, his son Donough obtained the
undisputed sovereignty of Munster. He defeated the Desmonians, and
instigated the murder of his brother Teigue. His next step was to claim
the title of King of Ireland, but he had a formidable opponent in Dermod
Mac Mael-na-mbo, King of Leinster. Strange to say, though he had the
guilt of fratricide on his conscience, he assembled the clergy and
chieftains of Munster at Killaloe, in the year 1050, to pass laws for
the protection of life and property--a famine, which occurred at this
time, making such precautions of the first necessity. In 1033, his
nephew, Turlough, avenged the death of Teigue, in a battle, wherein
Donough was defeated. After his reverse he went on a pilgrimage to Rome,
where he died in the following year, after doing penance for his
brother's murder. The Annals say that "he died under the victory of
penance, in the Monastery of Stephen the Martyr."[231] Dermod Mac
Mael-na-mbo was killed in battle by the King of Meath, A.D. 1072, and
Turlough O'Brien, consequently, was regarded as his successor to the
monarchy of Ireland. Turlough, as usual, commenced by taking hostages,
but he found serious opposition fro