Lugaid mac Con

Lugaid man Con was an unfortunate High King of Ireland with a turbulent reign and a fight to claim his place. As with other High Kings, there are different dates related to him depending on the source. His story has links to the Cormac mac Airt, and we will cover their story more when we look at Cormac’s reign.

From the various sources, the following dates can be seen; in the Lebor Gabála Érenn his reign is said to have been around 180 – 192AD which would coincide with the reign of the Roman emperor Commodus. In Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn Lugaid’s reign is dated at around 173-203AD, and the Annals of the Four Masters dates his reign at around 195-225.

Although most of the dates hover around the 2nd Century AD, many stories about him date much later which is not uncommon.

Lugaid came from a line of kings from the Corcu Loígde or the Gens of the Calf Goddess (Sil Lugdach meic Itha) who descended from the ancient rulers of Muster, the Dáirine and got their name from Lugaid Loigde (Lugaid of the Calf Goddess). Lugaid mac Con was his most famous descendent.

Lugaid’s father was Macnia mac Lugdach and his mother was Sadb ingen Chuinn, daughter of High King Conn Cétchathach. When Macnia died, Sadb married Ailill Aulom, king of Munster and Lugaid became his foster child. Lugaid also had a foster brother by the name of Éogan, who grew to be an adversary of Lugaid throughout his life.

Lugaid’s patronymic name, mac Con came from his childhood when he was suckled by a greyhound named Eloir Derg, who belonged to his foster father, Ailill.

Lugaid and the Battle of Cenn Abrat

The story starts with Lugaid and Éogan travelling to Connacht to get horses and tack from the High King Art, who was their uncle. As they travelled, they heard music coming from inside a bush and decided to find out who was playing it.

They pulled a small man out from the bush, along with his three-stringed timpan. Lugaid and Éogan would not decide what to so with the man and so they decided to take him back to Ailill.

When they arrived back, Ailill asked why they had returned with the man. Lugaid and Éogan explained that they had come across the musician and that he was a magical musician, capable of producing music like no one had ever heard. Ailill was, understandably, sceptical and so announced that the man should play his timpan for him.

The musician began to play. He played sad music until they all cried, happy music until they laughed, and drowsy music until they all fell asleep. Once he had finished, the man left and returned to where he came from.

Lugaid and Éogan demanded what Ailill made a judgement as to which of them the man’s music belonged and it went like this. Lugaid  is referred to as Mac Con here. –

“Give judgment O Ailil,” said they.

“What said ye when the man was found?”

“I said that his music was mine,” said Mac Con.

“I said that the music was mine,” said Éogan

“True,” said Ailill, “the man belongs to Éogan.”

“Iti s a false judgment,” cried Mac Con

“It is not for thee to criticise,” says Éogan, “a mere vassal.”

“It is a mere vassal,” says Mac Con, “shall shear of they head and trample on thy face. This month come thou and meet me at Cenn Abrat.”

That came true and each came with his army (Dobbs, M. 1930)

The early documents account for the following battle.

Ailill and Lugaid both went forth with their armies. With Lugaid was also his jester, Dadera mac Dairbreach (Do Dera) who would play and important role later. As time went on, it was clear that the armies of Ailill were winning this battle and Lugaid was going to be defeated.

Lugaid’s jester approached Lugaid and said to him “Put this crown on your head and give yours to me.” Lugaid gave his crown to his jester. As a result of this, Lugaid’s enemies concentrated their attention on him and Lugaid was able to get away. Dadera mac Dairbreach was unfortunately killed by Ailill’s army. It was said that Lugaid had extremely white legs and Ailill knew he has been tricked when he saw a pair of white legs running away from the battle. Lugaid was wounded by a spear thrown at his retreating legs.

Lugaid was able to flee from Ireland to Scotland with 27 of his followers. Once they arrived in Scotland, Lugaid told his men not to give up his identity to the Scottish King as he was worried that if he knew who he was, he would be handed over to the High King Art. Whilst keeping his identity a secret, Lugaid and his followers were offered a year of hospitality by the Scottish king.

As time passed, the king was surprised that they were acting in so orderly a manner when they had, to his knowledge, no leader. He began to suspect that they were keeping something from him. Two events happened and Lugaid’s identity was revealed.

The first was when a poet arrived from Ireland and Lugaid became aware of his bad things were back in Ireland. The poet told them about the mistreatment of the land by Éogan. Lugaid was visibly distressed and the Scottish king noticed. Following this, the king devised a test to see whether the group of Irish refugees did have a leader. He offered Lugaid and his men mice for dinner. Due to being of regal birth Lugaid was too polite to refuse the food and because he did not refuse, his men would not refuse either. The king asked Lugaid to admit who he was and Lugaid finally admitted he was the leader of his group.

Once Lugaid admitted that his was the leader of the group, the Scottish king agreed to join him in returning to Ireland to reclaim his throne. This meant that Lugaid had an army of Scots to support him in battle.

Now that he had a large army behind him, Lugaid was able to sweep his way across Ireland until he faced Éogan and High King Art at the Battle of Mag Mucrama.

On the night before the battle, High King Art the Lonely, who was to die in battle the following day, conceived a child who would go on to be Cormac mac Airt, a High King in his own right (more detail on this can be found under Cormac’s story). Éogan’s death was also prophesised by the blind druid, Dil and that also came to pass. Also killed in battle were all seven of Ailill’s sons.

After the battle, Lugaid reclaimed the throne. Whilst he was High King, he took the young Cormac mac Airt in, which led to Lugaid’s downfall. When Lugaid was seen to give a bad judgement which involved confiscating a woman’s sheep, Cormac was seen to be the wiser of the two suggesting that shearing the sheep would be a better solution as fleece would grow back.

Due to this, Lugaid was forced from the throne in favour of Cormac. It is said that during the reign of Lugaid Mac Con life was extremely hard.

It is said in the annals that ‘Evil was the reign of Mac Con, for there was neither mast nor fruit, nor fish in the estuaries, the cows gave no milk nor did the other cattle, nor was there heat from the sun nor seines in the weirs, on account of the false judgements and arrogance of Mac Con.’ (Translation from Dillon, Myles – The Death of Mac Con (1945).)

Once Lugaid was no longer king, he decided that he would return home to his step-father, Ailill. However, Ailill was not the forgiving type of man and Lugaid had been responsible for the death of all of Ailill’s sons. Ailill pretended that he was welcoming of Lugaid and went to kiss him to show he was welcome. Ailill, however, had a poisonous tooth and within three days, half of Lugaid’s face had been eaten away and he passed away and the story of Lugaid mac Con was at an end.