Flann Sinna - Family

Family

Flann Sinna was known to have been married to at least three different women, and his recorded children numbered seven sons and three daughters.

His marriage to Gormlaith ingen Flann mac Conaing, King of Brega, a key ally of his stepfather, was probably the first. Known children of this marriage are Donnchad Donn, later King of Mide and of Tara, and Gormlaith.

Flann's daughter Gormflaith ingen Flann Sinna became the subject of later literary accounts, accounted which depicted her as a tragic figure. She was married first to Cormac mac Cuilennáin of the Eóganachta, who had taken vows of celibacy as a bishop. On Cormac's death in battle in 908, fighting against her father, she was married to Cerball mac Muirecáin of the Uí Dúnlainge, who supposedly abused her. Cerball was a key ally of Gormlaith's father. After Cerball's death in 909 Gormlaith married her stepbrother Niall Glúndub, who died in 919. The Annals of Clonmacnoise have her wandering Ireland after Niall's death, forsaken by her kin, and reduced to begging from door to door, although this is thought to be later invention rather than a tradition with a basis in fact.

The second of Flann’s known marriages was his union with Eithne, daughter of Áed Findliath, dated circa 877. Flann and Eithne’s son Máel Ruanaid was killed in 901. Eithne was also married to Flannácan, King of Brega, by whom she had a son named Máel Mithig, although whether this preceded her marriage to Flann is unclear. It is likely that Flann divorced Eithne in order to follow the tradition of marrying his predecessor's widow, Eithne's stepmother. Eithne died as a nun in 917.

His third wife, Máel Muire, who died in 913, was the daughter of the King of the Picts, Cináed mac Ailpín. She was the mother of Flann’s son, Domnall (King of Mide 919–921; killed by his half-brother Donnchad Donn in 921), and his daughter, Lígach (died 923), wife of the Síl nÁedo Sláine king of Brega, Máel Mithig mac Flannacáin (died 919).

The mothers of Flann Sinna’s sons Óengus (died 915), Conchobar (king of Mide 916–919; died in battle against the "Foreigners" alongside his brother-in-law Niall Glúndub), Áed (blinded on Donnchad Donn's orders in 919), and Cerball are unknown, and likewise his daughter Muirgel (died 928), who was probably married to a Norse or Norse-Gael king.