Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maelsechlainn I
MAELSECHLAINN I (d. 863), king of Ireland, whose name is often spelt Maelsechnaill (Annals of Ulster, i. 370), as well as Maolsechlainn (Annala Rioghachta Eireann, i. 472), is called by English writers Moyleseaghlyn (Translation of Annals of Clonmacnois), Melaghlyn, Melachlin, and Malachi. The aspiration of the ‘s,’ which begins the second half of this compound name, causes it to sound as if spelt Melachlin, the ‘e’ having the Italian sound, and the ‘i’ of the final syllable being short. The version Malachi is based on a farfetched resemblance in written appearance, and the line of Moore, ‘When Malachi wore the collar of gold’—a reference to Maelsechlainn the second—has helped to give it currency. The first was son of Maelruanach, king of Meath, who was son of Donnchadh, king of Ireland (770–97), who was descended from Conall Cremhthainne, one of the four sons of Niall Naighiallach [q. v.] , who remained in Meath, and were the founders of the southern Ui Neill. His genealogy is given in full in the ‘Annals of Ulster’ (pp. 370–2). His father's elder brother, Conchobhar, was king of Ireland (820–34), and his father was chief of clan Colmain. He is first mentioned in the chronicles in 838, when he slew Crunnmhael, economus of Durrow. In 840 his father was defeated by Diarmait MacConchobhair, whom Maelsechlainn slew the next day. After the death of his father in 842, he became king of Uisnech, as the chief of clan Colmain was called, Uisnech being the most famous dun in his section of Meath. In 844 he captured Turges the Dane, and drowned him in Loch Owel, co. West Meath. On the death of Niall Caille, he became in 846 king of Ireland, and soon after attacked the Luighni and Gailenga, two Meath tribes, who had sided with the Northmen, and were plundering his country. He defeated them, and destroyed their stronghold on an island in Loch Ramor, a large lake on the northern division between Meath and Breifne. He next won a victory over the Danes at Farragh, co. Meath, and another at Rathcommair, and after these battles in 847 plundered Dublin, then a purely Danish town. On his return he encamped at Crufait, in Meath, for some time, and this expedition was celebrated in verse by Maelfechin, a contemporary poet. While he was here, Cinaedh, chief of Ciannachta Breagh, one of his tributaries, joined the Danes, and ravaged Meath, burning several churches, as well as the island stronghold of Loch Gabhor, the home of Maelsechlainn's ally, Tighearnach, who had been with him at the sack of Dublin. In 849 he captured Cinaedh, and drowned him in the river Nanny, co. Meath, in his own territory of Ciannachta Breagh, an event celebrated by Guaire Dall, and other poets. He then called a meeting at Armagh of the chiefs of Leth Cuinn, and of Ulidia, so that the whole north was represented. The clergy of Armagh and of Meath also attended. Having thus consolidated his power in the north, he marched in 853 into Munster to Mullach Indeona, near Clonmel, and took hostages from the chiefs. Three years later, in a severe winter, he again invaded Munster, defeated its king at Carn Lughdhach, carried off plunder and hostages, and made an alliance with the Deisi, a Meath tribe, who had conquered a kingdom for themselves in the south. In 857 he held a second great tionol or convention at Rath Aedha MacBric (now Rath Hugh, co. Westmeath). Fethghna, archbishop of Armagh, and Suairlech, abbot of Clonard, with Cearbhall [q. v.], king of Ossory, and Maelgualai, son of the king of Munster, and many other chiefs attended. Next year he led an army of his own race, the southern Ui Neill, with Munstermen, Leinstermen, and Connaughtmen, to Maghdumha, now Moy, near Charlemont, co. Tyrone, and there encamped. The object was evidently an attack upon Ailech, and Aedh Finnliath, head of the northern Ui Neill, attacked the camp at night and got into it, but was driven out, though his action saved his country from further invasion. In 859 Maelsechlainn defeated the Danes of Dublin at Druimdamhaighe, King's County. Aedh Finnliath, while Maelsechlainn was on the southern border of Meath, invaded it from the north, evidently anxious to be near Tara in the event of a royal demise. The king, with the aid of Cearbhall, forced Aedh to retreat, but he returned with Danish allies in the last year of the reign. Maelsechlainn died on 30 Nov. 863. An ancient poem on his death mentions that he used to ride a white horse, and that his body, placed on a bier, was drawn to his tomb by two oxen. His daughter, Maelfebhail, died in 887, and his son, Flann Sionna, became king of Ireland in 879, on the death of Maelsechlainn's enemy and successor, Aedh Finnliath. Keating, in his ‘Foras Feasa ar Eirinn,’ has incorporated a poetic composition as to the capture of Turges by Maelsechlainn's daughter, which is perhaps based on the history of Judith, and is not found in any of the extant annals.
[Book of Leinster, a manuscript of the twelfth century, Roy. Irish Acad. facsimile, ff. 217, &c.; Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. J. O'Donovan, vol. i.; Annals of Ulster, ed. W. M. Hennessy, vol. i.; Marianus Scotus, ed. B. MacCarthy, Dublin, 1892; R. O'Flaherty's Ogygia, seu Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia, 1685; James Stuart's History of Armagh, Newry, 1819.]