Uí Ímair

The Uí Ímair or Uí Ímhair were a Danish Viking dynasty who ruled the Irish sea region and western coast of Scotland from the late 9th century into the 10th century. The name is Old Irish, and means "grandchildren" or "descendants of Ivar", perhaps referring to Ivar the Boneless, the man whose obituary is recorded in the Irish annals under the year 873, reading "Imhar, rex Nordmannorum totius Hibernie & Brittanie, uitam finiuit.", or "Ivar, king of all the Norse of Ireland and Britain, ended his life". [e.g. "Annals of Ulster", sub anno 873.3, text [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001A/index.html here] , translation [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A/index.html here] .]

The Uí Ímair took their inheritance and ruled the same area - namely the Irish longphuirt (i.e. "ship-ports" like Dublin and Waterford), Mann, the Hebrides, Argyll, and the coasts of Galloway, Ayrshire, and Cumberland-Westmorland, as well as much of Northumbria - into the next century. However, as Alex Woolf points out, it would be a mistake to view the lordship as a "unitary empire", [Alex Woolf, "Age of Sea-Kings: 900-1300", in Donald Omand (ed.), "The Argyll Book", (Edinburgh, 2004), pp. 95-6.] but instead a collection of lordships ruled by the same kindred, with only varying degrees of unity depending on the political circumstances of the moment and the charisma of individual leaders.

Rulers associated with the Uí Ímair include Sitriuc Caech, Ragnall ua Ímair, Gofraid ua Ímair and Ímar ua Ímair, probably grandsons of the eponymous Ímar. Possible great-grandsons include Amlaíb mac Gofrith, Amlaíb Cuarán, Gofraid mac Sitriuc, Blácaire mac Gofrith, Ragnall mac Gofrith and Aralt mac Sitriuc. Recorded sons of Ímar may include Sitriuc (died 896), Sichfrith (died 888) and Bárid (died 881). [Clare Downham, "Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014", (Edinburgh, 2007), pp. 28, fig. 5, 29, fig. 6, & 237–276.]

Among the modern Irish families once associated with the Uí Ímair are the O'Donovans, and they descend from a daughter of Ivar of Limerick, wife to Donovan of Bruree, an ally against the Dal Cais. See O'Hart (1892) and Todd (1867).

ee also

*Dál Riata
*Kings of Dublin
*Kings of Jorvik
*King of Mann
*Lord of Mann
*Lords of Galloway
*Lord of the Isles
*Norse-Gaels

Notes

References

* Forte, Angelo, Oram, Richard, & Pedersen, Frederik, "Viking Empires", (Cambridge, 2005)
* O'Hart, John, "Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation". 1892. 5th edition.
* Todd, James Henthorn, "Cogadh Gaedhel Re Gallaibh: The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill...". Longmans. 1867.
* Woolf, Alex, "Age of Sea-Kings: 900-1300", in Donald Omand (ed.), "The Argyll Book", (Edinburgh, 2004), pp. 94-109

External links

* [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001A/index.html Annals of Ulster]
** [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A/index.html translation]