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Diarmait mac Má el na mBó (died 7 February 1072) was King of Leinster, a s w e l l a s H igh King of Ireland (with opposition). He was one of the mos t i m p o r tant and significant kings in Ireland in the pre-Norman era.
Diarmait belonged to the Uí Cheinnselaig, a kin group of south-east Le i n s t e r centred on Ferns. His father, Donnchad mac Diarmata, became know n m o r e c o mmonly by the epithet Má el na mBó ("Baldy of the Cattle"), h en c e D i a rmait's patronym. The last of Diarmait's ancestors to have been c o u n t e d as king of all Leinster, Crimthann mac É nnai, died in the late 5 t h c e n t ury; but Diarmait's more immediate forebears, most recently his g r e a t - grandfather Domnall mac Cellaig (died 974), had been counted among t h e k i n g s of the Uí Cheinnselaig. Diarmait's mother was Aife, daughter o f G i l l a P á traic mac Donnchada, king of Osraige. He had at least one si bl i n g , a b rother named Domnall whose son Donnchad mac Domnaill Remair l a t e r b e came king of Leinster.
The Uí Cheinnselaig had been prominent in earlier times, but their pow e r h a d b e en broken at the battle of Á th Senaig in 738. The rival Uí D ú n l a i n ge, based in northern Leinster around Naas and Kildare, who also e n j o y e d the support of the powerful Clann Cholmá in kings of Mide, domin a t e d L e inster until the time of Brian Bó ruma. The decline of Clann Cho l m á i n , a nd the defeat inflicted on the Uí Dú nlainge, led by Má el Mó r d a m a c M u rchada, at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, changed the politic a l l a n d scape to favour the Uí Cheinnselaig once more.
The return of the Vikings to Ireland in the early 10th century occasion e d t h e d e velopment of new towns on the coasts. The towns, centres of tr a d e a n d m anufacture, would give significant political power to those wh o c o u l d c ontrol their wealth. Kings of Leinster found themselves in a p ar t i c u larly advantageous position to exploit this new wealth as three o f t h e f i v e principal towns lay in or near Leinster. In Leinster proper, i n t h e s o u th-eastern corner dominated by the Uí Cheinnselaig, lay Wexfo rd . T o t h e w est of this, in the smaller kingdom of Osraige, which had b e en a t t a ched to Leinster since the late 10th century, was Waterford. Fi n al l y , t he most important Viking town in Ireland, Dublin, lay at the no r t h - e astern edge of Leinster. Compared to this, kings in the north and w e s t o f I r eland had easy access to no towns, while those in the south, i n M u n s t er, had access to two: Cork on the south coast and Limerick on t he w e s t c o ast.
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Abt 1005 - 1072 (67 years)
