Brian Boru
Brian Boru the son of Kennedy, of the Dalgas race (157) was born in Kincora in 941. In 964 his brother Mahon became king of all Munster. At this time the Danes held the chief fortresses of the province, including Limerick, Cork, and Waterford, from which their marauding parties swept continually over the country, murdering and destroying wherever they came. King Mahon and his brother Brian, finding that they were not strong enough to withstand them openly, crossed the Shannon with those of their people who abode on the open plains, and took refuge among the forests and mountain solitudes of Clare. From these retreats thev carried on a relentless desultory warfare with tlie foreigners, during which no quarter was given on either side.
After a. tune both parties grew tired of these destructive conflicts, and a truce was agreed on between Mahon and the Danish leaders. But young Brian would have no truce : and he maintained the war on his own account against fearful odds, till at last he was left with only fifteen followers. And now the king, Mahon, hearing how matters stood, and fearing for his brother’s safety, visited him in his wild retreat, and tried to persuade him to abandon further resistance as hopeless. But all in vain : the young chief was not. to be moved from his purpose. And he at length persuaded his brother the king to resume hostilities ; and the two brave brothers collecting all their forces formed an encampment at Cashel, from which they sent expeditions to ravage the Danish settlements all round.
Now when Ivar of Limerick, king of the Munster Danes, heard of this uprising, he was infuriated to madness; and making- a mighty gathering of all the Danes of Munster he determined to march into Thomond and exterminate the whole Dalcassian race root and branch. Molloy king of Desmond and Donovan king of Hy Carbery (in the present Co. Limerick) basely joined and encouraged him; and bent on vengeance he set out from Limerick with his whole army for the encampment at Cashel.
When the Dalcassian chiefs heard of this they marched west, and met the enemy half way at Sulcoit, now Sollohod, a level district near the present Limerick Junction, twenty miles from Limerick city. The battle of Sulcoit began at sunrise on a summer morning of the year 968, and lasted till mid-day, when the foreigners gave way and fled-” fled to the hedges and to the valleys and to the solitudes of the great flower- covered plain.” They were pursued and slaughtered all the way to Limerick, which now was taken possession of by the victorious Irish. After this decisive battle Mahon defeated the Danes in seven other battles, till at last he became king of all Munster.
