Conall, King of Dal Riata
K I N G C O N A L L of DAL RIATA
son of Comgall St Gallen
King Conall of Dal Riata, only son of Comgall
St Gallen, was defeated by the Scottish Picts in
558 AD, and they carried away many spoils of
victory. But King Conall was able to work it
out with Scottish Druid King Brude
MacMaelchon up near Inverness to give the
Island of Iona to Columba.
The poets in Ireland are a favored group. But
back in the 6th century, they abused their
traveling bard status by freeloading and
disturbing the peace with loud wild
adulterous living.
King Hugh II called a judgment Convention in
573 AD at Drumceat north of Tara to abolish
all the poets and kick them out of Ireland.
When Columba, a good poet and musician
himself, heard about this lynch mob, he
decided he had to make an impassioned
speech at Drumceat to ask for reform, not
abolition and forced removal of all the rowdy
poets from merry Ireland.
Because he had been booted out for good
himself and could never ‘see’ Ireland again,
Colm Cille Columba arranged for a large
entourage including Aiden and 50 Bishops to
go by boat to the green Isle, and blind-folded
himself so as to not ‘see’ Ireland.
His speech while blind-folded did the trick –
so he departed back to Iona Island, leaving his
ex-roomate King Conall (studied in Delgon
563 AD in Kintyre) to follow through with key
reforms so as to avoid an abolition disaster.
This was accomplished at Drom-Keth in 590
AD. The poets shaped up, no longer allowed
to wander, forced to settle down in one place
as the official local bard.