MacCarthy Mór (Mac Carthaigh Mór), Cormac

MacCarthy Mór (Mac Carthaigh Mór), Cormac (d. 1359), king of Desmond, probably the third son of Domnall Óc MacCarthy (d. 1306), king of Desmond, is a shadowy figure whose reign (1328–59) reflects the decline of the MacCarthy overkings of Desmond during the early decades of the fourteenth century. The first mention of Cormac comes in a fragmentary annalistic reference for 1326, when he seems to have prevented the slaughter by Domhnall MacCarthy (qv) (d. 1327) of Maurice fitz Thomas FitzGerald's (qv) force. Cormac succeeded his brother Diarmait Óg MacCarthy, king of Desmond, murdered by FitzGeralds, in 1328. For some years he seems to have lived in peace with the Anglo-Irish of Desmond, but he reversed this policy early in the 1330s, when with Brian Bán O'Brien (qv) he attacked the Anglo-Irish of Munster in 1332. During 1337 the Anglo-Irish of Desmond heavily defeated MacCarthy's forces, and Maurice fitz Thomas FitzGerald, 1st earl of Desmond from 1329, was praised for conspicuous successes against him in 1339. Desmond and MacCarthy were reconciled by the middle of the 1340s; in 1344 Cormac joined Desmond on a rampage through the counties of Cork and Tipperary and was suspected of being privy to a plot to make him king of Ireland. However, it was his rivals the MacCarthy family of Cairbre and Diarmaid Óg MacCarthy who made territorial inroads against the Anglo-Norman families. In 1352–3 the justiciar Sir Thomas Rokeby (qv), with Cormac's help, campaigned against Diarmaid, rewarding Cormac for the success of the enterprise with a grant of the Cogan lands near Macroom. Cormac died in 1359 while besieging a castle belonging to the Uí Chairbre, and was succeeded as king of Desmond by his son Domhnall Óg MacCarthy (qv) (d. 1391).