Hill of Tara -
The sacral kingship of Tara
Tara and the hinterland in which it is located, which includes the Boyne valley, was a focal point of considerable political and religious activity from the prehistoric period. This is hardly surprising given the fertile soils of the region and its accessibility from the sea and by river. The existence of a sacral kingship at Tara is evident from many early texts. The king of Tara was constrained by taboos. He could not leave Tara after sunset. He could not be away from Tara for more than nine days. A successful king of Tara, whose reign mirrored that of the universal ideal king, ruled justly, truthfully and prosperously. The heroic biographies of the greatest mythical kings of Tara, Cormac mac Airt and Conaire Mór embody these notions of kingship. Cormac mac Airt became king of Tara when he pronounced a wise judgement on the his arrival on the hill and the resident king uttered a false judgment, thus causing the collapse of his house (and the creation of the monuments known as Clóenferta ‘The Sloping Trenches’). Conaire Mór’s recognition as king of Tara is equally imbued with connotations of sacral kingship. De Shíl Chonairi Móir ‘On the descendants of Conaire Mór’ tells how the candidate for the kingship of Tara had to drive his chariot through two flag-stones, Blocc and Bluigne, to the Lia Fáil which screeched against the chariot’s axle, if he were the rightful king of Tara. Conaire Mór succeeded in this ordeal and was proclaimed king of Tara. This ceremony appears to echo a genuine pre-Christian inauguration ritual which was performed at Tara in prehistory.
While elements of this sacral kingship continued into the historic period (circa 550 A.D. onwards) - as many of the non-Christian beliefs regarding the good king were compatible with Christianity -, it is not certain that Tara continued to be used as a ceremonial site to the same extent as it had been in prehistory. Hostages were exchanged and military campaigns were initiated on the hill. People are likely to have inhabited the site on ceremonial occasions only. Contrary to popular belief, Tara was not the chief residence of the high-king of Ireland. Early sources suggest that a king who held the title rí Temro ‘king of Tara’ occupied a superior position above other kings on the island. This position did not translate into political control over the whole island, as expressed in the term ‘high-king’, until the ninth century. Even Brian Bóruma (Boru), who was described as imperator Scotorum ‘emperor of the Irish’ and is regarded popularly as the model high-king of Ireland, spent much of his reign establishing his dominance and maintaining that position.