Cuan ua Lothchain (d. 1024) was a professional poet inextricably linked to Tara and its rulers, in particular Mael Sechnaill mac Domnaill, who predeceased him by two years. Indeed Padraig O Riain has argued that it is to Cuan we owe the literary revival of Tara as a symbolic seat of kingship designed to advance the standing of his northern employer in the face of stiff opposition from the latter’s Munster contemporary, Brian Boru. This is seen most clearly perhaps in his dinnshenchas poem on Temair toga na tulach/foata Eriu indradach (Tara noblest of hills, under which is Ireland of the battles) and in his description of Tailtiu, a site closely associated with Tara. The latter, written in support of Mael Sechnaill, who in a conscious declaration of power celebrated the famous oenach (gathering) there in 1006 after a gap of almost eighty years, endorses the monarch as oen-milid na hEorapa (the sole champion of Europe), ordan ^arthair domuin duind (the glory of the noble western world), and, most significantly, as the rightful king of Tara whose rule bestowed peace and plenty on his subjects. Mael Sech-naill is also directly addressed in a dinnshenchas poem on the Boyne which may be by our poet; a second version of the river’s origin is recounted in another composition that Cuan almost certainly wrote, though the surviving ascription is only partly legible. Moreover, he employed the tragic story of Eochaid Feidlech and his three sons to underline the legitimacy of Mael Sechnaill’s rule in his poem on Druim Criaich, near Tara. In other compositions he ventured outside his favored territory, addressing such far-flung places as the River Shannon and Carn Furbaide (Granard, Co. Longford). Nonetheless, Tara remained his chief focus, being accorded pride of place in one recension of Dinnshenchas Erenn (The Place-Name Lore of Ireland), which Cuan may have authored, according to Tomas O Concheanainn.
Promotion of Tara is also a feature of his other work. Thus, his tract on royal prohibitions concerns itself with the king of Tara in the first instance. Similarly, the narrative poem Temair Breg, baile na fian (Tara of Brega, homestead of the champions), which may have been written by him, furnishes Nfall Nofgfallach (Nfall of the Nine Hostages) and his descendants, of whom Mael Sechnail was one, with a patent for the all-important kingship of Tara, serving as the poetic counterpart to the corresponding prose version, Echtra mac nEchach Mugmedoin (The Adventure of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon). Moreover, such was his fame that he was later cited as an authority by his patron’s rivals, Brian Boru’s twelfth-century descendants claiming his imprimatur for their long-held right to the kingship of Cashel. On him were also fathered a number of poems, including one on the three famous trees of Ireland, whose author describes himself as Cuan o Caeindruim (from Caendruim). In reality, it was from Tethba in Mide that Cuan hailed, and it was here too that he was murdered by local inhabitants in 1024. Our poet had the last word, however, as the annalist recounted: Brenait a n-aenuair in lucht ro marb. Firt filed innsein (The party that killed him became putrid within the hour. That was a poet’s miracle).
