Editing Cormac mac Airt (section)

==Reign==
Cormac's reign is recorded in some detail in the [[Irish annals]].<ref name="AFM" /> He fought many battles, subduing the [[Ulaid]] and [[Connacht]] and leading a lengthy campaign against [[Munster]]. In the fourteenth year of his reign, he is said to have sailed to [[Great Britain|Britain]] and made conquests there. In the fifteenth, thirty maidens were slaughtered in Tara by Dúnlaing, king of Leinster, for which Cormac had twelve Leinster princes put to death. In other texts, he is said to have been temporarily deposed twice by the Ulaid, and to have once gone missing for four months. He is also said to have compiled the Psalter of Tara, a book containing the chronicles of Irish history, the laws concerning the rents and dues kings were to receive from their subjects, and records of the boundaries of Ireland.<ref>Standish Hayes O'Grady (ed. & trans.), [http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/panegyriccormac.html "The Panegyric of Cormac mac Airt"], ''[[Silva Gadelica]]'', 1892</ref>

Although he is usually remembered as a wise and just ruler, one story presents him in a less flattering light. Having distributed all the [[cattle]] he had received as tribute from the provinces, Cormac found himself without any cattle to provision his own household after a plague struck his herds. A steward persuaded him to treat Munster as two provinces, the southern of which had never paid tax. He sent messengers to demand payment, but [[Fiachu Muillethan]], the king of southern Munster, refused, and Cormac prepared for war. His own druids, who had never advised him badly, foresaw disaster, but he ignored them, preferring to listen to five druids from the ''[[sidhe]]'' supplied by his [[fairy]] lover, [[Báirinn]].

Cormac marched to Munster and made camp on the hill of Druim Dámhgaire ([[Knocklong]], [[County Limerick]]). His new druids' magic made the camp impregnable and his warriors unbeatable, dried up all sources of water used by the Munstermen, and nearly drove Fiacha to submission. But Fiacha in desperation turned to the powerful Munster druid [[Mug Ruith]] for aid, and his magic was too strong even for Cormac's fairy druids. He restored the water and conjured up magical hounds who destroyed the fairy druids. His breath created storms and turned men to stone. Cormac was driven out of Munster and compelled to seek terms.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/T301044.html |title=The Siege of Knocklong |access-date=2016-05-23 |archive-date=2016-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924053452/http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/T301044.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the tale ''[[Echtra Cormaic]]'' (Lady Gregory, GAFM IV.11 "His Three Calls to Cormac" ) the Irish King is tempted by the sea-god [[Manannan mac Lir]] with treasure, specifically a "[[Silver Branch|shining branch having nine apples of red gold]]," in exchange for his family. Cormac is led into the Otherworld  ([[Tír Tairngire|Land of Promise]]) and taught a harsh lesson by Manannán, but in the end, his wife and children are restored to him. Also, Manannán rewards him with a wonderful gold cup which breaks if three lies are spoken over it and is made whole again if three truths are spoken.{{sfnp|Stokes|1891|pp=185–229}}<ref name="Gregory1">Gregory, Lady Augusta (1903) [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/gafm/gafm21.htm online "Part I Book IV: His Three Calls to Cormac"] in ''Gods and Fighting Men''. Buckinghamshire, Colyn Smyth</ref> Cormac used this cup during his kingship to distinguish falsehood from truth. When Cormac died, the cup vanished, just as Manannan had predicted it would.

The 8th-century text ''[[The Expulsion of the Déisi]]'' describes enmity between Cormac and the group known as the [[Déisi]], descendants of Cormac's great-grandfather [[Fedlimid Rechtmar]] who had been his retainers. Cormac's son Cellach (or Conn) abducts Forach, the daughter of a Déisi leader. Her uncle Óengus Gaíbúaibthech comes to rescue her, but Cellach refuses to release her. Óengus runs Cellach through with his "dread spear", which has three chains attached to it; these chains wound one of Cormac's advisers and blind Cormac in one eye. Cormac fights seven battles against the Déisi, and expels them from their lands. After a period of wandering, they settled in Munster. Cormac, having lost an eye, moves into the Tech Cletig on the hill of [[Achall]], as it was against the law for a disfigured king to sit in Tara. His duties as king are taken on by his son [[Cairbre Lifechair]].<ref name="FFE" /><ref name="AFM" /><ref>[[Kuno Meyer]] (ed. & trans), [http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/dessi1.html "The Expulsion of the Déssi"], ''Y Cymmrodor'' vol. XIV, 1901</ref><ref>Vernam Hull, [http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/dessi2.html "Expulsion of the Déssi"], ''Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie'' vol. 57, 1957</ref>