Brian Boru

Brian Boru was king of Munster and later high king of Ireland, building power through warfare, alliances and control of important river and coastal routes. He defeated a coalition at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 but was killed after the battle, becoming a major figure in Irish historical memory.

Brian Boru was born in Killaloe and died in Clontarf. Brian rose from kingship in Dál gCais and Munster to dominate much of Ireland, challenging the long supremacy of the Uí Néill; he was killed after his coalition defeated the forces of Dublin and Leinster at Clontarf in 1014.

In Morgan Llywelyn’s Pride of Lions, after Brian Boru is killed at Clontarf, his fifteen-year-old son Donough inherits a famous name but not an uncontested throne. In Robert E. Howard’s Spears of Clontarf, set in Ireland in 1014, Spears of Clontarf returns to the climactic battle fought outside Dublin between the forces of Brian Boru and a coalition that included Viking allies. Brian Boru is treated fictionally in Cecelia Holland’s The Kings in Winter, Edward Rutherfurd’s The Princes of Ireland, and Morgan Llywelyn’s Lion of Ireland.