The Death of Cormac mac Airt
from
the Annals of the Four Masters
In the year 266 in the age of Christ:
Forty years was Cormac, son of Art, son of Conn, in the
sovereignty of Ireland, when he died at Cleiteach, the bone
of a salmon sticking in his throat, on account of
the siabhradh
genii which
Maelgenn, the Druid, incited at him, after Cormac had
turned against the Druids, on account of his adoration of
God in preference to them. Wherefore a devil attacked him,
at the instigation of the Druids, and gave him a painful
death. It was Cormac who composed Teagusc Na Righ, to
preserve manners, morals, and government in the kingdom. He
was a famous author in laws, synchronisms, and history, for
it was he that established law, rule, and direction for
each science, and for each covenant according to propriety;
and it is his laws that governed all that adhered to them
to the present time.
It was this Cormac, son of Art, also, that collected the
Chroniclers of Ireland to Teamhair, and ordered them to
write the chronicles of Ireland in one book, which was
named the Psalter of Teamhair. In that book were entered
the coeval exploits and synchronisms of the kings of
Ireland with the kings and emperors of the world, and of
the kings of the provinces with the monarchs of Ireland. In
it was also written what the monarchs of Ireland were
entitled to receive from the provincial kings, and the
rents and dues of the provincial kings from their subjects,
from the noble to the subaltern. In it also were described
the boundaries and meares of Ireland, from shore to shore,
from the province to the cantred, from the cantred to the
townland, and from the townland to the traighidh of land.
These things are celebrated in Leabhar
Na nUidhri. They
are evident in the Leabhar
Dinnsenchusa.