Diarmaid mac Cearbhaill
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In Irish mythology and tradition, Diarmaid mac Cearbhaill (Diarmait mac Cerbaill, Diarmuid mac Cerrbeóil, Dermot McKerval) of the southern Uí Néill clan was High King of Ireland ca. 545-561. He was reportedly the last pagan king of Ireland, and the last to celebrate the ritual of the Feis Temrach (the "spending the night" of Tara) in which the new king slept with the local goddess of sovereignty.
Irish annals record that Diarmaid was killed in 561 in the Battle of Cúl Dremne against the northern Uí Néill. A legend records another tradition about his death.
Diarmaid had killed his wife's lover Flann mac Díma by burning down his fortress. For this deed, according to the legend, St. Ronan prophesied that Diarmaid would die when a roofbeam fell on his head; Saint Ciaran prophesied that he would die in the same manner as Flann; but Bec mac Dé, Diarmaid's druid, gave a much more elaborate prophesy, foretelling a threefold death. He would be drowned, burned, and have his head crushed by a roofbeam, by Flann's kinsman Áed Dub mac Suibni, king of Ulaid, in the house of Banbán the hospitaller, on a night that he wore a shirt grown from a single flax seed, drank ale brewed from a single grain of corn, and ate pork from a sow that had never farrowed.
Diarmaid dismissed these prophesies, even when invited to a feast by Banbán. His wife, who had been listening, refused to go, so Banbán offered the king his own daughter for that night, and gave him a nightshirt, pork and ale. When the girl told him the nightshirt had been woven from flax grown from a single seed, the ale had been brewed from a single grain of corn, and the pork had come from a sow that had never farrowed, Diarmaid realised the prophesy had been fulfilled, but too late. He tried to escape, but Áed Dub was standing at the door with his spear. As Diarmaid fled back into the house, Áed's men set it on fire. Diarmaid tried to escape the conflagration by leaping into a vat of ale, but a flaming roofbeam fell on his head, and the prophesy was fulfilled.
Southern Uí Néill family tree
Niall Noigíallach, d. 450/455? | |_________________________________________________________ | | | | | | Coirpre Lóegaire Conall Cremthainne | | | | | | Cormac Caech Lughaid Fergus Cerbéll | d. 507 | | | Tuathal Máelgarb Dairmaid, died 565. died 544/549. | ________________________________________|______________________ | | | | | | Colman Már, d.555/8 Colman Bec, d. 587. Áed Sláine, d.604. | | | | Clann Cholmáin dynasty Síl nÁedo Sláine dynasty
See also
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