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Editions

• Vernam Hull (ed. & tr.), ‘Conall Corc and the Corco Luigde’, PMLA 62 (1947) 887-909.  [The text and the translation of GCmL are printed in the appendix on pp. 906-9.]

Manuscripts

• The Book of Lecan
  

Date

• Middle Irish in its present form, but it could well go back to an Old Irish source
  

Characters

• Conall Corc mac Luigdech (d. in fifth century): the first king of Cashel and the ancestor of the Éoganacht dynasties
  

• Feidelm ingen Mothairi: a witch and one of the foster-mothers of Corc

• Bolcobar Bretnach: a female satirist and the mother of Corc.  Her epithet suggests that she was born in Britain.

• Níall mac Echach (aka Níall Noígíallach): king of Tara and the eponymous ancestor of the Uí Néill.  According to some texts, he is Corc’s foster-brother, for they were both fostered by Torna Éices.

• Láir Derg: one of the foster-mothers of Corc and the wife of Torna Éices.  Vernam Hull takes Láir Derg and Feidelm the witch to be the same person.

• Crimthann mac Fidaig: king of Munster and in some sources king of Tara.  He is a descendant of Éogan Mór, and therefore of the Éoganachta, but his line died out, so he is not the direct ancestor of any of the historical Éoganacht dynasties.

Notes

• The story of Corc’s birth is also told in Conall Corc 7 Corco Loígde and in Cóir Anmann §54.

• Vernam Hull is of the opinion that present text is either an extract of Conall Corc 7 Corc Loígde—the two accounts of Corc's birth being very similar—or a copy of its source.  The version in Cóir Anmann tells essentially the same story but in very different words and, thus, belongs to a different textual tradition.

Summary

The female satirist Bolcobar Bretnach compelled King Lugaid mac Ailello Flainn (who is not named in the text) to sleep with her by putting ‘an irrefusable request’ (áilges) on him.  As a result, she became pregnant and in time gave birth to a son, who was named Conall.  This Conall was sometimes known as Corc mac Láire because he was fostered by Láir Derg.

One night, Bolcobar put the infant Conall under the protection of the witch Feidelm, who hid the boy in the ground beneath the hearth (fo-luigi a mac fon tellach fon talam) just before a group of witches arrived.  One of the witches caused fire to burst up in the hearth and the baby’s ear was burned.  From that burn, the child Conall got the nickname Corc (which is understood to be a form of corcra ‘purple’).

During the time of Níall mac Echach, Corc was exiled to Scotland because he refused to have sex with the wife of Crimthann mac Fidaig.  Some time after his return to Ireland, the Corco Dula killed one of the Níall’s sons.  Corc, however, ransomed the culprits from the king and established them in Munster.  Graca became the ancestor of the Gregraidi; Dula, the ancestor of the Corco Dula; and Maine, the ancestor of the Menraidi.