The Pirate High-King of Ireland

An artistic rendering of Niall Noígíallach

So far in this series we have tackled artistic renderings of Coel Hen (a late-Roman warlord)¹, Arthwys ap Mar (Coel’s great-grandson) a Romano-British Warlord/King², Peredur ab Eliffer a Brythonic Warlord (Arthwys’ grandson)³, Eugein ap Beli of Alt Clut a 7th century Brythonic King, Domnall Brecc a 7th century King of Dal Riata⁴. Today we look at Niall Noígíallach, a 5th century supposed High-King of Ireland, famous for the ‘Nine Hostages’ of his epithet, Noígíallach. The various Annals of Ireland all place his death around 400, though a floruit in the mid 5th century is much more likely, as the exploits of his sons seem to span three generations, a impossibly long period for one mans sons even if he were to have sons at the beginning and end of his floruit. Rearward dynastic expansion is a common thing, seen within the pedigrees of Wessex, with repeated formulae used to stretch a reigning dynasty back as far as possibly to enhance legitimacy.

The notion of Niall as High-King of all Ireland are likely manufactured much as the notion of Arthur as High-King of all Britain. As I have discussed in many of my articles on Arthur, pan-island High-Kings are extremely improbably, though we do know that regional High-Kings or Over-Kings were a fairly common occurrence. It may stand that Niall was High-King of Connacht. Interestingly tradition holds that Niall’s mother Cairenn was a Saxon princess, though her name hints at a Romano-British origin with the Latin name Carina.