Osraige is the name of a kingdom (and people) located in the southeast quadrant of Ireland in an area roughly coterminous with the present diocese of Ossory (Cos. Kilkenny and Leix), which preserves the name. Originally, the kingdom may have extended westward to the river Suir and eastward to Gowran (Co. Kilkenny), near the river Barrow. Osraige is probably a compound of the name of an eponymous ancestor and the common suffix, -raige (a kingdom).
Its strategic location gave Osraige an importance belied by its relatively modest size and status. It controlled the main route into Munster for armies coming down from the north, which had to cross Belach Gabrain in south Osraige. (Several famous battles were fought in the kingdom.) More importantly, it served as a buffer between the provinces of Munster and Lein-ster, a position that ensured for it a role in the politics of both. Indeed, so prominent was its role in Leinster affairs that the genealogists falsely traced the Osraige back to Leinster stock. Osraige belonged to Munster in the sixth to eighth century, and probably long before then. In addition, early Irish genealogical and hagio-graphical traditions link Osraige with another Munster people, the Corcu Lofgde, who were located in maritime southwest County Cork. Thus, St. Ciaran of Saigir (Seirkieran), patron saint of the Osraige, came from the Corcu Lofgde. It appears that the Osraige had broken away from dependence on the Corcu Lofgde by the seventh century. Both peoples may have been much more prominent at an earlier, prehistoric period, as suggested by the special status they enjoyed in relation to the provincial overking of Munster at Cashel. Thus, the Osraige were a free people who did not have to pay tribute, because (it was said) they had once been the rulers of Munster. Yet they seem to have been subject to Uf Neill kings of Tara in the late sixth century, perhaps because the new ruling family of Munster, the Eoganacht, owed allegiance to the latter.
The second half of the ninth century witnessed a period of marked Osraige influence in both Munster and Leinster. The Osraige king, Cerball mac Dungaile (847-888), made a name for himself in Leinster by defending the waterways of the Barrow and Nore against Viking attacks. He played off Norse forces against each other and forged marriage alliances with the Viking rulers of Dublin. (He is remembered in Icelandic genealogies as Kjarvalr Irakonungur, Kjarvall the Irish king.) But he was no match for the political ambitions of Mael-Sechnaill I, the Uf Neill king of the northern half of Ireland, who invaded Munster. As a result, Munster was forced to alienate Osraige to him in 859. Thereafter, Osraige drifted toward a Leinster sphere of influence as Cerball’s successors laid claim to the kingship of Leinster—unsuccessfully for the most part. The Norman invasion of 1170, which was directed at the southeast, meant that Osraige was one of the first Gaelic kingdoms to fall. Within a decade the Normans separated it from Leinster, making it part of the royal demesne lands of Waterford under Robert le Poer.
