Bressal Belach

All sources of information about Bressal Belach are written much later than his life, and contain mainly legendary information. The earliest of them are Leinster traditions, probably recorded in the 7th century ^{[1] [2]} .

According to these sources, Bressal Belach, the son of Fiahu bah aikkid, was the king of Leinster, subordinate to the supreme kings of Ireland from the family of the Wye Neilles, hostile to his family. Wanting to get rid of the power of the kings of Tara , he stopped paying those tributes imposed on his kingdom. Having entered into an alliance with the head of the Fenians, Finn , the ruler of Leinster defeated the army of High King Kayrpre Lifihar in battle and for many years freed Leinster from paying such a humiliating tribute ^{[3] [4]} .

Historians believe that these events never occurred in the form in which they are described in legends. However, they reflected the memories of the wars between their rulers and the Wye Neilles, which had been fought for the possession of the throne of Tara in the 5th – 6th centuries. In order to justify the claims of their patrons for power over all of Ireland , medieval chroniclers associated with the interests of the Wye Neilles dynasty deliberately distorted the information at their disposal that in the 5th century the throne of Tara was owned not only by Wye Neilah, but also by representatives of other Irish clans , including, possibly, Bressal Belach ^[2] .

Bressal Belach was the first ruler of Leinster, whose death is mentioned in the Irish annals : “ Annals of Ulster ” date her 435, “ Annals of Inishfalllen ” - 436. The same sources report that although Bressal Belach had two sons, Enda Nia and Labride Lydeh, on the throne of Leinster he was succeeded by his grandson Enda Kennsalah ^[5] . However, the poem written in the 7th century, which, according to historians, more accurately reflects the succession order in this kingdom, has been preserved in the Leinster Book . According to her information, after the death of Bressal Belach, an ancestor of the clan Wu Hennselig , the Leinster throne was occupied by representatives of other branches of the dynasty that ruled here: first his cousin Muyredah Snite and his son Moenach from the clan Wy Bairrhe , and then the second cousin of the latter Mc Cairntin mack Coelbot Wee Enehgliss . It is possible that only after the death of Mac Cairthinn in 446, the descendants of Bressal Belach were again able to regain power over this kingdom ^{[6] [7]} .

• Byrne F. D. Kings and supreme rulers of Ireland. - SPb. : Eurasia , 2006 .-- 368 p. - ISBN 5-8071-0169-3 .
• A New History of Ireland. Volume I. Prehistoric and Early Ireland / Ó Cróinín D. - Oxford: Oxford University Press , 2008 .-- 1219 p. - ISBN 978-0-1992-2665-8 .

• The Annals of Ulster . CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts. Date of treatment April 14, 2013. Archived March 23, 2013.
• Annals of Inisfallen . CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts. Date of treatment April 14, 2013. Archived on April 19, 2013.