Fogartach mac Néill

Fogartach mac Néill (died 724), sometimes called Fogartach ua Cernaich, was an Irish king who is reckoned a High King of Ireland. He belonged to the Uí Chernaig sept of the Síl nÁedo Sláine branch of the southern Uí Néill. He was King of Brega and was the son of Niall mac Cernaig Sotal (died 701) and great-grandson of the high king Diarmait mac Áedo Sláine (died 665).

Fogartach may be identified with the "Focortoch" who signed as a guarantor of the Cáin Adomnáin at Birr in 697. The earliest report of him in the Irish annals is his flight from the battlefield at the Battle of Claenath (Clane, Co.Kildare) in 704 following the defeat of a number of southern Uí Néill kings by Cellach Cualann (died 715), King of Leinster.

In 714 Fogartach was deposed as king of Brega and exiled in Britain. It has been suggested that it was the High King, Fergal mac Máele Dúin (died 722), who deposed him, but it appears more likely that this was a dispute within the fractious Síl nÁedo Sláine, and that Fogartach was removed by his uncle Conall Grant (died 718), assisted by Murchad Midi (died 715) of Clann Cholmáin. Conall killed Murchad the following year and Fogartach returned in 716.

He caused some manner of disturbance in 717 at the Oenach Tailtiu—an annual Uí Néill gathering held at Teltown—where "Ruba's son and Dub Sléibe's son" were killed, but the annalistic record lacks sufficient context to explain what happened there and why. The following year Conall Grant won a battle against a coalition of southern Uí Néill kings at Kells, but was killed by Fergal mac Máele Dúin later that year.

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