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| Ancestral house | Scylding or Yngling House of Munsö (trad.) |
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| Titles | |
| Founder | Ivar Ragnarsson (disputed) Ivar Vidfamne [2] (alt.) [3] |
| Founding | 9th century? |
| Dissolution | disputed |
| Cadet branches | see discussion |
The Uí Ím(h)air [iː ˈiːvˠaɾʲ] ( listen), or Dynasty of Ivar, were an enormous royal and imperial Norse dynasty who ruled Northern England, the Irish Sea region and Kingdom of Dublin, and the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, from the mid 9th century, losing control of the first in the mid 10th, but the rest at variously disputed times, depending on whom may be counted among their descendants, which has proven a difficult task for scholars to determine because reliable pedigrees do not survive. Additionally, for between three and four decades they were probably overkings of the Kingdom of Scotland itself,[1] distinct from the Kingdom of Strathclyde of which they may also have been overkings, and later briefly the Irish province of Munster, dominated from Waterford, and later still, briefly the English kingdom of Mercia. In the west of Ireland, the dynasty also supplied at least two kings of Limerick, from which they may have attempted to conquer Munster again. On the female side two members are styled Queens of Ireland in the Irish annals (each was also Queen of Mide and Queen of Munster respectively), while another was Queen of Leinster (and Osraige), and in the Norse sources another was Queen consort of Norway. Finally another may have been Queen of Brega. The name is Old Irish, and means "grandchildren" or Descendants of Ivar, but the dynasty include their progenitor and his sons. Ivar is described in the Irish annals as the brother of Amlaíb Conung and Auisle, and his obituary is recorded in the Annals of Ulster under the year 873, reading Imhar, rex Nordmannorum totius Hibernie & Brittanie, uitam finiuit., or "Ivar, king of all the Norse of Ireland and Britain, ended his life".[4] He may have been the inspiration for the legendary Ivar Ragnarsson, one of the leaders of the Great Heathen Army. A positive association would mean Uí Ímair dynasts were also overkings of East Anglia.
Alex Woolf points out it would be a mistake to view the lordship as a "unitary empire",[5] but instead a collection of lordships ruled by the same kindred, with only varying degrees of unity depending on the political circumstances of the moment and the charisma of individual leaders. Especially in the early period, a great portion of the dynasty's wealth, probably the majority, came from the international slave trade, both as slavers themselves and from the taxation of it,[6] for which they were infamous in their time. In this role they star as the principal antagonists in the early 12th century Irish epic political tract The War of the Irish with the Foreigners, although the account is exaggerated.[7]
One of the first great dynasties of the Viking Age, the Uí Ímair were at their height the most fearsome and wide-reaching power in the British Isles and perhaps beyond.[8] However, unlike the contemporary Rurikids in the East they ultimately failed to make any long-lasting territorial gains of significance and are considered a strategic failure, despite their considerable economic and political influence.[9] Today the dynasty are probably no longer survived in the male line, but some of their maternal descendants can still be found in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
It is possible the Uí Ímair were peculiar in that early members, and possibly the entire known later dynasty, might have descended from the founder in the female line.[10]
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The following list contains only members mentioned in the Irish annals and other reliable and semi-reliable sources, such as the Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib, and among those only the ones who can be placed in the pedigree with relative confidence. Thus it is by no means complete. Among recent developments in scholarship it has been argued that the historical king of Northumbria contributing to the character of Eric Bloodaxe was actually an Uí Ímair dynast.[11]
After various authors. Birthdates are unknown. mac = son of; ingen = daughter of; ua = grandchild of; Ua (h)Ímair = surname (descendant of Ímar).
The precise lineage of one of the very last widely agreed upon members of the dynasty, Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, is uncertain. He was either a descendant of Ivar of Waterford (died 1000) or Gofraid mac Arailt (died 989). That of Cacht ingen Ragnaill, Queen of Donnchad mac Briain, may or may not depend upon Echmarcach's.
The independent dynasty of Waterford founded or continued by Ivar of Waterford (died 1000) cannot be linked genealogically to the 'central' line of Dublin kings, but James Henthorn Todd gave him a descent from Ragnall ua Ímair, who never ruled there.[12] Their claim to Dublin and the names of their dynasts suggest they did belong to the dynasty.[13]
Like in the case of the late Waterford dynasty, the pedigree of the last Norse to rule in Limerick is also uncertain. Ivar of Limerick (died 977), and surnamed Ua hÍmair, features prominently in the early 12th century saga Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib, although he appears less in the annals, which are lacunose and in general poorer for western Ireland. In any case he and/or the Waterford dynasty are probably survived today through intermarriage with the O'Donovan family, verifiably associated with both and known for their use of Uí Ímair dynastic names in medieval times. A notable sept of the O'Donovans known as the Sliocht Íomhair or "Seed of Ivor" survived into early modern times. It is also periodically claimed that some of the family may even be male line descendants of Ivar of Waterford, a variant of which (through his son Donndubán) actually appeared in the Encyclopædia Britannica for a few decades.[14] This remains unverified and the family do not make this last claim themselves. All (surviving) septs profess a Gaelic lineage.
How long the Uí Ímair remained in Dublin after losing it to the Uí Cheinnselaig in 1052 is unknown. Following the death of Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó in 1072 the kingship appears to have been held by one Gofraid mac Amlaíb meic Ragnaill, who may or may not have been a candidate supported by Toirdelbach Ua Briain. While it has been argued he was installed by Toirdelbach,[15] the annals themselves make no such statement, which but for one only briefly report Gofraid's death in 1075, and variously style him King of the Foreigners and King of Dublin. But according to the Annals of Inisfallen "Gofraid grandson of Ragnall, king of Áth Cliath, was banished over sea by Tairdelbach Ua Briain, and he died beyond the sea, having assembled a great fleet [to come] to Ireland."[16] So Gofraid, regardless of how he took the throne, thought he had some chance of reestablishing the dynasty independent in Dublin in spite of the Gaels. Godred Crovan may have been successful for a period after him.
Certainly the Uí Ímair, an enormous dynasty, were once survived by a number of Gaelic families, or in their own right in Ireland, but the combination of the Norman invasion of Ireland and later Tudor conquest destroyed the vast majority of the medieval Norse-Irish and Gaelic aristocracy alike. Dense clusters of given names strongly associated with the Norse dynasty can be found in professedly Gaelic families in the great genealogical compilations of Duald Mac Firbis and Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, and in various other sources. However, a strange phenomenon becomes apparent, that while the dynasty were concentrated in Dublin, Waterford and Limerick, and thus in the southern half of Ireland, these professedly Gaelic families later using their given names with great frequency are found mainly in the northern half of the island, their pedigrees associating them with the Connachta, Uí Maine, and Northern Uí Néill. On top of this, none of these northern dynasties have a documented history of willing association with the Uí Ímair, or in the case of the first two any association at all. The Uí Ímair are only documented intermarrying with the Osraige (FitzPatricks, see below), Laigin, O'Brien dynasty, the Southern Uí Néill Clann Cholmáin and Síl nÁedo Sláine, and the aforementioned O'Donovans. In any event, the one long surviving source that might have contained pedigrees of surviving septs of the Uí Ímair themselves was a section in the Great Book of Lecan. This section, specifically focused on the pedigrees and doings of the Norse families of Ireland, was still in existence in the 17th century, as reported by Mac Firbis himself, but has since become lost.[17]
From his daughter Máel Muire, the FitzPatrick dynasty are descendants of Gofraid mac Arailt, probable grandson of Sihtric Cáech, emperor of the Norse of Ireland and Britain. Their ancestor Cerball mac Dúnlainge counted Ímar I (died 873) as an ally.
Descendants of the Dublin Uí Ímair may have persisted into the 13th century in the line of Godred Crovan, King of Dublin and King of Mann and the Isles, although his ancestry is not agreed upon and may very well be different.[18] If he in fact was then he was mostly likely a son or nephew of Ímar mac Arailt above, one of the last certain Uí Ímair kings of Dublin and a grandson of Amlaíb Cuarán. Godred's descendants, although vassals of the Kings of Norway, continued to rule into the 1260s, the last being Magnus Olafsson (to 1265), or briefly his son Godred VI (1275).
Although their descent from Godred Crovan is through the female line, Alex Woolf believes the Clann Somhairle (Clan Donald and Clan MacDougall) or the Lords of the Isles can be regarded as a "cadet branch" of the Uí Ímair, as they apparently based their claim to the Isles on this descent (according to Woolf).[19] Their founder Somerled married Ragnhild, daughter of Olaf I Godredsson, King of Mann and the Isles and son of Godred Crovan. This of course assumes these dynasts belonged to the Uí Ímair. Sir Iain Moncreiffe attempted to reconstruct a male line descent from Echmarcach mac Ragnaill himself to Somerled,[20] but this has received little attention. More recently it has been suggested by Richard Oram that Somerled may actually have been a male line descendant of the Jarl Gilli,[21] whose lineage apart from being Norse is uncertain.
Nevertheless, both the descendants of Godred and Somerled favoured and continue to favour the Uí Ímair dynastic names Ragnall and Gofraid/Godred. One great sept are the Mac Domhnaill of Clann Raghnaill.
It must be pointed out that the Clann Somhairle do not claim to be Norse themselves and profess an Irish lineage.
Olaf, a son of Sigtrygg Silkbeard, became an ancestor of the Kings of Gwynedd, through his daughter Ragnhild, wife of Cynan ab Iago and mother of the famous Gruffydd ap Cynan.
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