Brian Boru Restaurant and Pub

Who is Brian Boru?

Brian Boru
(Brian Boruma mac Cennetig)
941—1014

Brian Boru was the first almost-Emperor of Ireland. A High King that bore the title for only a short time but spent decades working his way up to the top from a beginning as a minor King of Munster along the Shannon.

Skilled in battle and in military strategy, Brian expanded his kingdom until Ireland was divided between himself, holding the South, and Mael Sechnaill mac Domhnall, previously the High King, who held the North. Brian forced Mael to recognize him as King of Ireland. So for a short time even the most independent of Ireland’s kingdoms acknowledged Brian’s rule but this was not to last.

The King of Leinster rose up in rebellion against Brian in 1012 and by 1014 had allied with the Hiberno-Norse (Irish descended from Vikings. Norse presence in Ireland was limited to the larger towns of Dublin, Wexford and Limerick and they eventually became completely hibernicized and integrated into Irish culture). This resulted in the fateful Battle of Clontarf on Good Friday in 1014.This was a bloody battle in which Brian and his son Murchad were killed. The list of the noble dead in the Annals of Ulster includes Irish kings, Norse Gaels, Scotsmen, and Scandinavians.

Legends about Brian include:

• That his name “Brian of the Tributes” was earned by his collecting tributes from the minor rulers of Ireland and using them to restore monasteries and libraries that had been destroyed in the Norse invasions.
• That Brian freed Ireland from Viking occupation.
• It is said that Brian either died in heroic man-to-man combat or that he was killed while he was at prayer by a fleeing Viking mercenary.

The descendants of Brian were known as the Ua Brian (O’Brien) clan, hence the surnames Ó Briain, O’Brien, O’Brian etc.