Ruaidrí ua Canannáin

Ruaidrí ua Canannáin (died 30 November 950) was king of the Cenél Conaill, and according to some sources, High King of Ireland.

The Cenél Conaill, a branch of the northern Uí Néill had been excluded from the alternating succession to the High Kingship which had been largely dominated by the northern Cenél nEógain kings of Ailech and the southern Clann Cholmáin kings of Mide since the early the 8th century. Ruaidrí was a descendant in the seventh generation of the previous Cenél Conaill High King, Flaithbertach mac Loingsig.

In the period before Ruaidrí ua Canannáin rose to prominence, the Cenél nEógain heir apparent to the High Kingship, Muirchertach mac Néill, was killed in battle in 943, while the High King, Donnchad Donn of Clann Cholmáin, died the following year. The deaths of Muirchertach and Donnchad appear to have left the field open to less likely competitors. The Uí Néill king lists make Congalach Cnogba of the southern Síl nÁedo Sláine, a kin group long excluded from the succession, Donnchad's successor. Congalach was Donnchad's sister's son. However, Donnchad's apparent policy of making strategic marriages to rising families also made Ruaidrí his kinsman. His aunt, Cainnech ingen Canannáin (d. 929), had been Donnchad's first wife.

Ruaidrí, whose home base was in the south of modern Donegal, first comes to notice after the death of Muirchertach. In 943 he defeated the Cenél nEógain and the northmen of Lough Foyle, killing Máel Ruanaid mac Flainn, Muirchertach's cousin. With the loss of Máel Ruanaid after Muirchertach, the Cenél nEógain were eclipsed, leaving Ruaidrí as master of the north at Donnchad's death. Most sources make Congalach Cnogba High King in succession to Donnchad. Sources claiming that Ruaidrí assumed the High Kingship after Donnchad, either alone or jointly with Congalach, are: the Prophecy of Berchán, an 11th-century historical poem presented as a prophecy; the southern, anti-Uí Néill Annals of Innisfallen; and the 12th-century Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib (The War of the Irish with the Foreigners) a wildly successful work of propaganda authored on behalf of the descendants of Brian Bóruma. The form of the Prophecy of Berchán makes identifying the subjects, who are referred to by often obscure epithets rather than names, sometimes difficult. In the case of Ruaidrí ua Canannáin, the identification is obvious:

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