BRIAN (surnamed aBottonasE or BOW, aof the tribute”, King of Ireland: b. 926; d. 23 April 1014. He was the son of Kennedy, King of Munster. At first chief of Thomond, or north Munster, Brian became King of Or monde on the death of his brother in 976. He rose step by step until his authority was un disputed throughout all Munster, whose chiefs became his tributaries and his allies. The Danes he had repeatedly chastised, and in 1002 he took up arms against Malachy (Maolseach lainn), the Ard-Ri, or High King, and com pelled him to abdicate in his favor. Brian was now the chief king of all Ireland and estab lished his court or fort at Ceann Coradh (Kincora), on the banks of the Shannon a few miles above the city of Limerick. Mal achy's deposition and the consequent elevation of Brian gave Ireland the greatest of her high kings and the country for some years enjoyed unbroken peace. War came when the discord ant elements coalesced. Brian had alienated the Leinster men by reviving the Boroimhe, or tribute; he had crushed the Danes of Limerick and Waterford; and these, with the Danes of the Isle of Man and those of Sweden and the Scottish Isles, joined together and, on 23 April 1014, their united hosts faced Brian at Clontarf, on the north shore of the Bay of Dublin. The
victory gained by the latter was decisive, the Danes being put to utter rout and theirpower in Ireland broken for all time. It was a dearly bought victory, however, for Brian, his son and grandson were among the slain at the close of the day. Brian was no less distin guished as a peace administrator; by establish ing harmony among the various discordant ele ments of his native land, thus permitting education and the arts to be practised and developed, he contributed in no small degree to the progress of civilization. His surname, gof the tribute," was bestowed on him from the circumstance of his having revived the an cient tribute exacted by the high-king from the rulers of the provinces. Fact and fiction have in the course of the centuries become so inter mingled that at this distance it is difficult to form a just estimate of Ireland's warrior chief.