What is recorded here

Magen Adhair was a ritual site where the kings of Temair and the Dál gCais fought over a single tree, cutting it down with its roots in 982 and again nearly seventy years later. The repeated destruction suggests the tree was not merely wood but a living claim to authority, perhaps the source of the rod of kingship itself. To break the tree was to break the legitimacy of the man who stood beneath it.

FitzPatrick (2004, 57-8) notes that during a raid on Magh Adhair by Máel Sechnaill, king of Temair in 982, the tree of Aenach-Maighe-Adhair was cut after being dug from the earth with its roots. Almost seventy years later, during the reign of Donnchad mac Briain, the ‘bile’ was prostrated once again from which it may be deduced that either it had not been fully destroyed in the attack of 982 or it had been replaced by another tree that was flourishing by 1052 (ibid.). FitzPatrick goes on to note that these events indicate the significance of the ‘bile’ of Magh Adhair to the Dál gCais kings and their enemies and that the ‘slat na righe’ or rod of kingship may have been cut from the ‘bile’. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 16 July 2018

The site is associated with the ancient assembly tree of Aenach-Maighe-Adhair, a significant ritual and judicial tree in early Irish tradition, which was destroyed during a 982 raid. Such trees were central to legal and religious gatherings, symbolizing the authority and sacredness of the location.

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