501 
had no love for Brian, and although Malachy had succeeded to the throne 
according to the hereditary right and usage, nevertheless they refused 
him all assistance; and Malachy, rather than see his people slaughtered 
in a hopeless contest, submitted at length to the superior force of Brian. 
The result was, that the O’Neills lost altogether the sovereignty, which 
might have been retained in the family, had Aodh or Hugh O’ Neill con- 
sented, by uniting against Munster, to support the rights of his kinsman. 
As it turned out, Malachy was the last legitimate king of the race from 
which the sovereigns of Ireland had been chosen ever since the age of St. 
Patrick. 
There is scarcely one of our native kings so well known by name to 
the English public as this Malachy; every school-girl in the United 
Kingdom who can sing an Irish melody has heard of the times ‘‘ when 
Malachy wore the collar of gold which he won from the proud invader.” 
But there is scarcely one of our native kings whose actions are so little 
known, or whose character has been so much maligned, even by our na- 
tive historians, as this same Malachy. 
He is accused of treachery, of having violated all his engagements 
and treaties with Brian ; and it is even said that Brian was called upon 
to dethrone him, and to take upon himself the supreme authority by the 
earnest solicitations of the princes and estates of Connaught.* Nay, we 
are told that at the battle of Clontarf Malachy had made a private treaty 
with the enemy, and at the commencement of the action actually de- 
serted, with his whole army, and remained inactive during the remainder 
of the battle. 
This latter calumny, although it has been countenanced by Keating, 
on the authority of the ‘“‘ Danish Wars,” is destitute of all probability. 
It has proceeded altogether from the partizans of Brian; and it is cu- 
rious to observe that Bishop O’Brien, one of the latest of those partizans, 
after the lapse of almost eight centuries, still retaining the spirit of clan- 
ship to the founder of his name, repeats all the stories of Malachy’s bad 
faith with much greater acrimony and much more minute detail than 
any of those who had lived nearer to the scene of action. 
The insinuation that Malachy was naturally inclined to ally himself 
with the Danes because Gluniarn, or ‘‘ Iron Knee,” King of the Danes 
of Dublin, was his half-brother, is particularly unfair.t It is quite true 
that Gluniarn was Malachy’s half-brother; but alliances matrimonial 
and political between the Irish and Danish families were at that time 
very common, and Brian himself was as closely connected with the 
Danish royal family of Dublin as Malachy was. 
Olaf, or Amhlaoibh, as his name is written by the Irish authorities, 
is called Olaf Quaran, in the Njal Saga (Olaf Kuaran§ in other Sagas), 
* See Dr. O’Brien’s “Law of Tanistry illustrated,” in Vallancey’s Collectanea, 
Part IV., p. 520. 
Ibid, pp. 525-6, 529. t Ibid, p. 516. 
§ Landnamabok, Part I., k. 19 (Islendinga Ségur, vol.i.,p.49. Copenhag. 1829). 
Saga Olaf’s Tryggvasonar (Fornmanna Ségur, tom. x., p. 255. Copenhag, 1835). 
