Dáire Drechlethan

Dáire Drechlethan "Dáire of the Broad Face" is a King of Tara listed in the Old Irish Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig. His identity with any king of Tara from Irish legend remains uncertain because his epithet is unique in the surviving corpus.

However, three candidates have recently been proposed,^[1][2] the most likely being Dáire Doimthech,^[3] a well known king of Tara from Irish legend. His kindred, the Dáirine or Corcu Loígde, believed to be related to the Érainn, provided a number of powerful kings of Tara in the early period, and this could not be ignored by the Uí Néill compilers of the list. A descendant (or ancestor) of Dáire Doimthech, Mac Con moccu Lugaid Loígde, is also listed in BCC. Dáire Doimthech is also called Dáire Sírchréchtach or Sírdréchtach often in the tales and genealogies, where he is prominent as an ancestral figure. On the other hand he is regarded as an ancestor deity of the Érainn by scholars following the theories of T. F. O'Rahilly.^[4]

The alternative candidates are first Dáire mac Cormaic, a son of the famous Cormac mac Airt, an early ancestor of the Uí Néill. Nowhere mentioned in legend as a king of Tara, he is only proposed on the basis of BCC apparently exhibiting bias in favour of Dál Cuinn candidates.^[5][6]

The second is Dáire Barrach son of Cathair Mór, eponymous ancestor of the Uí Bairrche, a Laigin dynasty. Although also nowhere described as a king of Tara, it is also recognized that overlordship of the region in which it lays was won from the Laigin by the Uí Néill, and that a number of Laigin kings of Tara are probably missing from BCC. At the same time this anti-Laiginian bias may make Dáire Barrach the least likely candidate. On the other hand his son Muiredach Sníthe and grandson Móenach are listed as kings of Tara in the Leinster regnal poem Nidu dír dermait.^[7] But see also Laidcenn mac Bairchid.

Notes

1. ^ Breathnach and Murray, pp. 89-90
2. ^ Mac Shamhráin and Byrne, pp. 168-9
3. ^ Breathnach and Murray
4. ^ O'Rahilly, pp. 48 ff.
5. ^ Mac Shamhráin and Byrne, p. 168
6. ^ Or at least this is an interpretation. The actual intentions of the 7th-8th century author(s) are not known.
7. ^ Mac Shamhráin and Byrne, p. 169

See also

• Dáire
• List of High Kings of Ireland

References

• Edel Bhreathnach and Kevin Murray, "Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig: Edition", in Edel Bhreathnach (ed.), The Kingship and Landscape of Tara. Dublin: Four Courts Press for The Discovery Programme. 2005. pp. 73–94
• Francis John Byrne, Irish Kings and High Kings. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2nd revised edition, 2001.
• Thomas Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge University Press. 2000.
• Eoin MacNeill, Celtic Ireland. Academy Press. 1981 (reissue with new intro. and notes by Donnchadh Ó Corráin of original Martin Lester Ltd edition, 1921).
• Ailbhe Mac Shamhráin and Paul Byrne, "Prosopography I: Kings named in Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig and the Airgíalla Charter Poem", in Edel Bhreathnach (ed.), The Kingship and Landscape of Tara. Dublin: Four Courts Press for The Discovery Programme. 2005. pp. 159–224
• Gerard Murphy, "On the Dates of Two Sources Used in Thurneysen's Heldensage: I. Baile Chuind and the date of Cín Dromma Snechtai", in Ériu 16 (1952): 145-51. includes edition and translation.
• Michael A. O'Brien (ed.) with intr. by John V. Kelleher, Corpus genealogiarum Hiberniae. DIAS. 1976. / partial digital edition: Donnchadh Ó Corráin (ed.), Genealogies from Rawlinson B 502. University College, Cork: Corpus of Electronic Texts. 1997.
• T. F. O'Rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. 1946.