Brian Boru: King of Ireland

by Roger Chatterton Newman

Brian Boru was an eleventh century Irish King who came closer than any other Irishman before or after to uniting Ireland. He is chiefly remembered as the man `who drove the Danes from Ireland', and who died at the Battle of Clontarf on Good Friday 1014. But there was far more to his life than that. The youngest son of an obscure king from Thomond, he tamed the Danes of Limerick and the Norsemen of Dublin, overthrew the six-century long monopoly of the Uí Néill's on the high throne of Ireland, and became one of the few high kings to invest that throne with any real authority. Brian King of Ireland explores the life and times of this remarkable man and distills reality from myth.

Genres: History, Ireland, Biography, Nonfiction, Irish Literature

287 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1983

Reviews

[Michael O'Brien]

This was an interesting book to read, and I enjoyed it. However, the author does write in the same style used in academic journals, and spends a lot of time trying to refute alternative interpretations of events from other historians. In other words, it reads a lot as a dry academic tome at times. As a result, Newman never really goes into what made Brian Boru great as a man or as a leader. The best part of the book, in my opinion, is the section on Brian's last great battle, the Battle of Clontarf, in which he defeated the Vikings.

Despite it academic character, this book does a good job on detailing the history and context of Ireland in the 11th Century, and it would found interesting by anyone who enjoys learning more about Irish history.

[Tristan]

I received this book as a gift for my 17th birthday during a two week trip to Ireland. Dense but interesting the book references many places I had visited including the town of Killaloe and the earthen fort nearby. Had to read with a map open but the book does an excellent job of dispelling the romanticism connected with this history and evaluating Boru as a human and not a legend. Interesting to read about the system of tanistry and traditional role of the Ardri at Tara and how they stood as obstacles to the unification of the island. I was a little confused by his history of Gormfhlaith, may have to look more into histories and legends surrounding her

[Adam]

Very dry but thorough history of one of the more fascinating figures in Irish history.

[U. Cronin]

I came to reading this book because of the year that's in it - the thousandth anniversary of Brian Boru's death at the Battle of Clontarf. I'm also playing around with the idea of writing something set in medieval times so "Brian Boru: King of Ireland" was also homework. And boy did it feel like it! This is not an easy read.
First of all, the history of medieval Ireland is extremely convoluted - much more involved than what the simple narrative would have us believe. The ninth and tenth centuries in Ireland were not all about the native Gaels struggling to oust the Viking invader. There was probably much more conflict between rival Irish kings than between native and Norse/Dane. Events of the time consist of a dizzying to-and-fro of plotting, skirmishes and wars between the northern Ui Neill and the southern Ui Neill, the Eoganach and the Dal gCais, the Deise, the Osraige, and whoever you're having yourself. It would take a gifted writer and pedagogue to detail the complexities of this turbulent period without befuddling, confusing and confounding the reader.
Which brings me to my second point: that, based on the evidence of "Brian Boru: King of Ireland" Mr. Chatterton Newman is not that writer. His prose style is dense and lumpen. No lightness is brought to the story, no enthusiasm. Indeed, from the dull and stale relating of events leading up to and throughout Brian Boru's kingship, it would seem that the author took as much pleasure from writing this book as I from reading it. Other reviews have criticized the book for its academic approach and dry impartiality. I would go one further and rebuke Mr. Chatterton Newman for singularly failing to demonstrate his own interest (or dare I say it, love) for the topic he is writing about. There is no concession to the lay reader. What was Brian Boru like as a person? Did he have a beard? Blue eyes? Green eyes? Did he limp? Was he right-handed or left-handed? What kind of clothes did he wear? What kind of clothes did the Vikings wear? What was his palace, Kincora, like? The book leaves me almost as much in the dark about the day-to-day of the period as when I opened its covers.
After finishing the book, I got the impression that the author held no fondness or even respect for Brian Boru, that he saw him as just a minor chieftain and warlord, who through ambition and circumstance, dragged his tuath up to the kingship of Munster and later of all Ireland. It was only the circumstances of Brian's death and the fact that Clontarf was the last hurrah of the Vikings' importance in Irish politics that his name resonates through history instead of that of, for example, Maoil Seachlain Ui Neill. Boru's achievements are glossed over, as are those of the Vikings. If fact Chatterton Newman doesn't seem to like the Vikings one bit and devotes some space to having a go at fellow historians who he sees as having elevated them to false heights of civilization and intelligence. Settling academic scores is a common theme throughout the book - something it could have done without. On the other hand, I would have appreciated more maps and illustrations, maybe even the odd Venn diagram of the clans and their inter-relationships.
I'll finish on a piece of advice: if you want to read a book on Brian Boru this year, shop around. There must be dozens better than this.