580 



provincial princes whom the Irish historians denominated 

 RiShe 50 bhppeapabhpa, or ' kings with opposition,' or whose 

 authority was disputed, and who, as O' Flaherty writes, were 

 in possession of sovereign power, though notahsolute in regard 

 of the projects laid by rival princes to undermine them. In 

 other words, he was one, and perhaps the greatest, of those 

 bold, ambitious, and unscrupulous men, who, following in the 

 track of the great military usurper, Brian Boroimhe, broke 

 through the principle of legitimate succession which had pre- 

 served the monarchy in the Hy-Niall race for a period of 700 

 years; and thus involved the country in such a state of anarchy, 

 disunion, and feebleness, that it became an easy prey to the 

 ambition of the second Henry, in the reign of his feeble and 

 less talented son, Roderick. 



" His history is thus sketched by his descendant, Charles 

 O' Conor, of Belanagare : 



" ' Turlogh O'Conor was at this time (anno 1 150) the most 

 powerful prince of Ireland. He disposed of the two provinces 

 of Munster to his own liking at several times, availing himself 

 of the virulent wars in that country between the O' Brians and 

 the Mac Carthys. He was also in almost a perpetual hos- 

 tility with Murchad O'Malachlyn, king of Meath, formerly 

 his father-in-law. Mac Morogh (the king of Leinster) he 

 often subdued, never feared. He had been stopped in his 

 career of power by Murchertach O'Lochlin, king of the North 

 Hy-Niall, but never subdued. He raised the power of Con- 

 naught higher than any of his predecessors, reigned over that 

 province fifty years, and died with the character of an able 

 prince in the year 1156.' 



" An able prince he was unquestionably, but, as his re- 

 corded acts show, a cruel and unprincipled one. In our times 

 we cannot read without a shudder of a father imprisoning one 

 of his sons for a long period, and blinding another. It should 

 be stated, however, to his honour, that he was magnificent 

 and generous, and that he appears to have been a zealous 

 promoter of the arts of civilized life. Of this feature in his 



