astery of Lismore, where he died
in 1119. The Annals call him the prop of the glory and magnificence of
the western world. In the same year Nial Mac Lochlann, royal heir of
Aileach and of Ireland, fell by the Cinel-Moain, in the twenty-eighth
year of his age. He was the "paragon of Ireland, for personal form,
sense, hospitality, and learning." The Chief Ollamh of Ireland,
Cucollchoille ua Biagheallain, was killed by the men of Lug and
Tuatha-ratha (Tooragh, co. Fermanagh), with his wife, "two very good
sons," and five-and-thirty persons in one house, on the Saturday before
Little Easter. The cause of this outrage is not mentioned. The Annals of
the Four Masters and the Annals of Ulster record the same event, and
mention that he was distinguished for charity, hospitality, and
universal benevolence.

Donnell O'Loughlin died in 1121, in the Monastery of St. Columba, at
Derry. He is styled King of Ireland, although the power of his southern
rival preponderated during the greater part of his reign. In 1118 Rory
O'Connor died in the Monastery of Clonmacnois. He had been blinded some
years previously by the O'Flaherties. This cruel custom was sometimes
practised to prevent the succession of an obnoxious person, as freedom
from every blemish was a _sine qua non_ in Erinn for a candidate to
royal honours. Teigue Mac Carthy, King of Desmond, died, "after
penance," at Cashel, A.D. 1124. From the time of Murtough O'Brien's
illness, Turlough O'Connor, son of the prince who had been blinded,
comes prominently forward in Irish history. His object was to exalt the
Eoghanists or Desmonian family, who had been virtually excluded from the
succession since the time of Brian Boroimhe. In 1116 he plundered
Thomond as far as Limerick. In 1118 he led an army as far as Glanmire
(co. Cork), and divided Munster, giving Desmond to Mac Carthy, and
Thomond to the sons of Dermod O'Brien. He then marched to Dublin, and
took hostages from the Danes, releasing Donnell, son of the King of
Meath, whom they had in captivity. The following year he sailed down the
Shannon with a fleet, and destroyed the royal palace of Kincora, hurling
its stones and timber beams into the river. He then devoted himself to
wholesale plundering, and expelled his late ally and father-in-law from
Meath, ravaging the country from Traigh Li (Tralee) to the sanctuary
lands of Lismore. In 1126 he bestowed the kingdom of Dublin on his son
Cormac. In 1127 he drove Cormac Mac Carthy fr