Corc mac Luigthig, also called Conall Corc, Corc of Cashel, and Corc mac Láire, is the hero of Irish language

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 tales which form part of the origin legend of the Eóganachta

Eóganachta

The Eóganachta or Eoghanachta were an Irish dynasty centred around Cashel which dominated southern Ireland from the 6/7th to the 10th centuries, and following that, in a restricted form, the Kingdom of Desmond, and its offshoot Carbery, well into the 16th century...

, a group of kindreds which traced their descent from Conall Corc and took their name from his ancestor Éogan Mór. The early kindred they belonged to are known as the Deirgtine

Deirgtine

The Deirgtine or Clanna Dergthened were the proto-historical ancestors of the historical Eóganachta dynasties of Munster. Their origins are unclear but they may have been of fairly recent Gaulish derivation...

. He was probably a grandson of Ailill Flann Bec

Ailill Flann Bec

Ailill Flann Bec, son of Fiachu Muillethan, was an Irish dynast belonging to the Deirgtine, the proto-historical ancestors of the historical Eóganachta dynasties of Munster. He was the father of Luigthech, also known as Lugaid, and thus the grandfather of Conall Corc...

, and possible cousins were Dáire Cerbba

Dáire Cerbba

Dáire Cerbba was an Irish dynast of uncertain origins, named in many early and late sources as the grandfather of the semi-mythological Mongfind and Crimthann mac Fidaig, and the most frequently named early ancestor of the historical Uí Liatháin and Uí Fidgenti...

 and the famous Crimthann mac Fidaig

Crimthann mac Fidaig

Crimthann Mór, son of Fidach , also written Crimthand Mór, was a semi-mythological king of Munster and High King of Ireland of the 4th century. He gained territory in Britain and Gaul, but died poisoned by his sister Mongfind. It is possible that he was also recognized as king of Scotland or Alba...

. The latter is his opponent in a celebrated cycle of stories.

The name and identity of Corc's actual father is something of a mystery, however. While certainly belonging to the kindred of the proto-Eóganachta, he is inconsistently named in the genealogies and tales as Lugaid or Láre. Further confusion is caused by the fact that a certain Láre Fidach is named as the father of Crimthann in one, although not necessarily the oldest, source (Laud 610), because this would rather implausibly make him and Corc brothers. In the tales Crimthann is his uncle or cousin. David Sproule more or less gets around this by arguing that Corc's father should be Lugaid Láre and that the Laud pedigree has been misread and/or is erroneous.

One of the two wives of Conall Corc was Aimend

Aimend

In Irish mythology and genealogy, Aimend is the daughter of Óengus Bolg, king of the Dáirine or Corcu Loígde. She marries Conall Corc, founder of the Eóganachta dynasties, and through him is an ancestor of the "inner circle" septs of Eóganacht Chaisil, Eóganacht Glendamnach, and Eóganacht Áine, who...

, daughter of Óengus Bolg

Óengus Bolg

Óengus Bolg, son of Lugaid, son of Mac Nia, son of Mac Con, son of Lugaid Loígde, son of Dáire Doimthech, was a king of the Corcu Loígde, and an ancestor of the Eóganachta "inner circle" through his daughter Aimend, married to Conall Corc...

, king of the Corcu Loígde

Corcu Loígde

The Corcu Loígde , meaning Gens of the Calf Goddess, also called the Síl Lugdach meic Itha, were a kingdom centered in West County Cork who descended from the proto-historical rulers of Munster, the Dáirine, of whom they were the principal royal sept...

. The other, the daughter of the King of the Picts

Picts

The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...

, is stated in the genealogies to have been Mongfind

Mongfind

Queen Mongfind was the wife, of apparent Munster origins, of the legendary Irish High King Eochaid Mugmedón and mother of his eldest three sons, Brion, Ailill and Fiachrae, ancestors of the historical Connachta, through whom she is an ancestor of many Irish and European nobility today...

, although she is likely confused with an Irish queen of the same name, who may or may not have been Crimthann mac Fidaig's sister.

These tales include:

• Senchas Fagbála Caisil
  Senchas Fagbála Caisil
  Senchas Fagbála Caisil "The Story of the Finding of Cashel" is an early medieval Irish text which relates, in two variants, the origin legend of the kingship of Cashel. Myles Dillon has dated the first variant to the 8th century, and the second tentatively to the 10th century.-Witnesses:The text...
  
  (The story of the finding of Cashel
  Cashel, County Tipperary
  Cashel is a town in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 2936 at the 2006 census. The town gives its name to the ecclesiastical province of Cashel. Additionally, the cathedra of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly was originally in the town prior to the English Reformation....
  
  )
• Conall Corc 7 Ríge Caisil (Conall Corc and the Kingship of Cashel)
• Comthoth Lóegairi co cretim 7 a aided (The Conversion of Lóegaire to the Faith and his Violent Death)
• Conall Corc 7 Corco Loígde (Conall Corc and the Corco Loígde)

Further reading

• Sproule, David, "Origins of the Éoganachta", in Ériu 35 (1984): pp. 31–37.
• Sproule, David, "Politics and pure narrative in the stories about Corc of Cashel", in Ériu 36 (1985): pp. 11–28.