O'Connor, Rory (died 1198)

Last high king of Ireland, 1166–70. He succeeded his father as king of Connacht in 1156 and secured high kingship of Ireland after one of his chief rivals Diarmait Mac Murchada was temporarily exiled to England. In the same year he marched on Dublin, offering its Hiberno-Norse citizens 4,000 cows, whereupon they recognized him as high king. He lost high kingship after the English invasion of 1170, yet retained status as king of Connacht and continued to hold sway over much of the northern half of Ireland.

Attempting to recapture his lost position as well as to hold his remaining territory, O'Connor spent much of the next decade in sporadic warfare against the English invaders, as well as their settled allies in Dublin and throughout Leinster. Slowly losing the effort, in 1183 he retired to a monastery at Cong, County Mayo, leaving the kingship of Connacht to his son Conchobar.