Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair and the politics of church reform in Connacht

Abstract

The scholarship on twelfth-century Ireland often repeats that Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht and high-king of Ireland with opposition, was a stalwart supporter of Augustinian monastic reform, though not of the Cistercians. By studying the evidence of several disciplines including architectural history, art history and some literary testimony, this essay instead argues that while Toirrdelbach accepted episcopal reform, he opposed monastic reform in Connacht, both Augustinian and Cistercian alike, fearing it would devolve power away from him and the Uí Dubthaig, his hereditary clerics. A possible inauguration ode suggests he travelled as a youth to France and England, where exposure to the European investiture controversy may have influenced his subsequent relationship with reformers. Toirrdelbach’s acquisition at the 1152 synod of Kells of an archdiocese at Tuam for Connacht was not an unqualified success, as the largely Cistercian-controlled synod took pains to reduce his grip on the Connacht church.