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Editions

• M. Dillon (ed. & tr.) ‘The Death of Mac Con’, PMLA (1945) 340-5.

Manuscripts

• The Yellow Book of Lecan
  

Date

• ‘It is early in style, but the language is Middle Irish. . . .  It may perhaps be assigned to the eleventh century’ (Dillon 1945 340).
  

Characters

• Lugaid Mac Con: the son of Luigith and king of Ireland from an Érainn people known as the Dáirine (prehistoric ancestors of the Corco Loígde)

• Cormac mac Airt: the son of Mac Con’s predecessor Art mac Cuinn and king of Tara from Dál Cuinn (prehistoric Connachta and Uí Néill).

• Ailill Ólom: son of Mog Nuadat and king of southern Ireland from Clanna Dergthened (prehistoric ancestors of the Éoganachta)

• Sadb, the daughter of Conn Cétchathach, the wife of Ailill Ólom, and foster-mother of Mac Con

• Ferchis mac Commáin: the slayer of Mac Con
  

Notes

• The story of Mac Con’s death is also related in Cath Maige Mucrama and Ailill Aulom 7 Mac Con 7 Finn ua Báiscne.  Dillon believes that the present text from YBL might have been one of the sources used by the author of CMM.

• The story of how Ailill acquires his fíacail fidbi, generally rendered as ‘poisonous tooth’, is told in Cóir Anmann (§41).

Summary

After being king of Tara for thirty years, Lugaid Mac Con pronounces a false judgment upon Bennaid, the woman hospitaller.  Bennaid’s sheep damaged the queen’s woad, and Mac Con declared that the sheep be forfeited.  However, Cormac mac Airt corrects his judgment, saying that “the complete shearing of the sheep” would be sufficient compensation.  When the men of Ireland hear this, they drive Mac Con away and make Cormac king of Tara.  Ireland was barren during Mac Con’s reign, but with the accession of Cormac, its fertility returned.

Mac Con returns home to Munster and to the house of his foster-father Ailill Ólom.  When he arrives, he is met by his foster-mother, Sadb, who tells him not to approach Ailill, who has never forgiven him for the death of his biological son Éogan (see Cath Maige Mucrama).  However, Mac Con says that he will attempt to atone for the evil he has done to Ailill and goes into to meet him.  Ailill welcomes his foster-son and offers him a kiss as a blessing, but instead of a kiss, Ailill bites Mac Con with his ‘poisonous tooth’ (fíacail fidbi).  Mac Con flees as the poison begins to take effect.

Ailill then sends Ferchis mac Commáin after Mac Con.  When he catches up with the fugitive, Ferchis pins him to a pillar stone with a spear.  Then, Ferchis cuts shavings from his spear and puts then in a nearby river as a sign that he has avenged Éogan.  As a result, that part of the river is renamed Ess Ferchis ‘The Rapids of Ferchis’.  Sadb then utters a lament for Mac Con, but Ailill rejoices.  After these events, Ailill becomes king of Munster and reigns for seven years.