Turlough O'Conor

O'Conor, Turlough, Monarch of Ireland and King of Connaught, was born in 1088. He was son of Roderic O'Conor, who died in the monastery of Clonmacnoise, where he had resided after being blinded by the O'Flahertys. Turlough conquered the princes of Ireland in the south and west, and, according to Keating, held the nominal sovereignty of Ireland from 1126 to 1156; but the Irish princes were engaged in continual hostilities among themselves and with the Northmen during his reign. In 1153 he subdued Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, and compelled him to return to her husband — O'Ruark, Prince of Breffny — Dervorgilla, with whom he had eloped a short time previously. We are told that he established a mint at Clonmacnoise, built bridges across the Shannon at Athlone and Atherochta (near Shannon Harbour), and across the Suck at Ballinasloe, and that he was a munificent friend of the Church. He died in 1156, aged 68, and was interred in the church of St. Ciaran at Clonmacnoise.

Sources

171. Ireland, History of, from the earliest period to the English Invasion: Rev. Geoffrey Keating: Translated from the Irish, and Noted by John O'Mahony. New York, 1857.