Domnall Mór Ua Briain

   Another name for Domnall was Domnall Mór Ó Brien King of Munster.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁹⁹
Domhall O'Brien, died in 1194, was the king of Munster and son of Turlogh O'Brien (1009-1086). He first appears in the chronicles in 1163, when he slew Maelruanaidh O'Cearbhaill, a chief whose territory was in the present county of Tipperary. He became king of Munster in 1168. He put out the eyes of his kinsman Brian O'Brien of Slieve Bloom in 1169, and made war on Roderic O'Connor. In 1174 he met the Normans in battle at Thurles, co. Tipperary, and defeated them, and in 1175 strengthened his power at home by putting out the eyes of Dermot O'Brien and of Mathghamhain O'Brien at Caislen Ui Chonaing, now Castle Connell, co. Limerick, but was nevertheless driven out of Thomond by Roderic O'Connor in the same year. In 1176 he drove the English out of Limerick, and in 1185, when John was in Ireland, again defeated them, when they made an expedition from Ardfinnan on the Suir to plunder Thomond. In 1188 he aided the Connaughtmen under Conchobhar Moenmhoighe O'Connor in the defeat of John de Courcy in the Curlew mountains.

In 1193 the English invaded Clare, and Domnall in return ravaged their possessions in Ossory. Though often fighting against the English, he submitted to Henry II at Cashel in 1171, and part of his territory was granted during his life to Philip de Braose. He died in 1194; and the chroniclers, who elsewhere only describe his wars, blindings, and plunderings, commemorate him as "a beaming lamp in peace and war, and the brilliant star of the hospitality and valour of the Munstermen."

[Origina Sources Cited by Author: Annals Riogliachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vols. ii, and iii. Dublin, 1851; Annals of Ulster, ed. MacCarthy, vol. ii., Annals of Loch Cé, ed. Hennessy, vol. i., Giraldus Cambrensis, vol. v. (all in the Rolls Ser.)]

~ Norman Moore, The Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XIV, p. 756

• Web Reference: Irish Pedigrees O'Brien , Kings of Thomond. ⁹⁹²
Donal Mór, son of Turlogh, was the last King of North Munster. Donal was married to Orlacan, daughter of Dermod na Gall MacMorough by his wife, the daughter of O'Moore, Prince of Lei. In 1175, Donal, blinded Dermod, son of Teige O'Brien, and Mahon, son of Turlogh, his kinsmen, which act caused the death of Dermod soon after at Castleconnell. In 1176, Donal expelled the Anglo-Normans from the City of Limerick, putting most of Henry II's garrison to the sword. In 1192, he drove the English out of Upper Ormond, Ara, and Coonagh, where they established themselves; and stripping them of the booty they took from the native chieftains.

• Web Reference: From Wikipedia Donnell Mór O'Brien.
Domnall Mór ("Donall the Great"), a great-great-great grandson of Brian Boru, was the third son of King Tairdelbhach of Munster, who reigned 1142 to 1167. He ascended to the throne in 1168 after the death of his eldest brother, Muirchertach, who had succeeded their father as king. Muirchertach was killed at the instigation of his cousin Conchobar mac Muirchertach Ua Briain.

Domnall married Urlachen, daughter of Diarmait mac Murchadha rí Laigin and Cacht O'Moore.⁹⁹² (Urlachen was born about 1154 in Leinster, Ireland.)