Feradach Finnfechtnach son of Crimthann Nia Náir

Crimthann Nia Náir

Crimthann Nia Náir , son of Lugaid Riab nDerg, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland...

, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland

High King of Ireland

The High Kings of Ireland were sometimes historical and sometimes legendary figures who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over the whole of Ireland. Medieval and early modern Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings, ruling from Tara over a hierarchy of...

. There is some disagreement in the sources over his position in the traditional sequence of High Kings.

The Lebor Gabála Érenn

Lebor Gabála Érenn

Lebor Gabála Érenn is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages...

and the Annals of the Four Masters

Annals of the Four Masters

The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland or the Annals of the Four Masters are a chronicle of medieval Irish history...

agree that he came to power after the death of Cairbre Cinnchait

Cairbre Cinnchait

Cairbre Cinnchait or Caitchenn was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland...

. The Annals say that when Cairbre overthrew his father, his mother, Baine, daughter of the king of Alba, was pregnant with him, but this would make him less than five years old when he came to the throne: it is likely this is a doublet of a similar story told of the later High King Tuathal Techtmar. The Annals also add that Ireland was fertile during his reign, contrasting it with the barren reign of the usurper Cairbre. Geoffrey Keating

Geoffrey Keating

Seathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was a 17th century Irish Roman Catholic priest, poet and historian. He was born in County Tipperary c. 1569, and died c. 1644...

 has Feradach succeed his father Crimthann, placing Cairbre's reign later. Keating relates that the judge Morann mac Máin (who in the Lebor Gabála and the Annals is the son of Cairbre and his wife Mani) lived in Feradach's time. Morann owned the id Morainn (Morann's collar or torc

Torc

A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large, usually rigid, neck ring typically made from strands of metal twisted together. The great majority are open-ended at the front, although many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. Smaller torcs worn around...

) which would contract around the neck of a judge who made an unjust judgement until he made a just one, or of a witness who made a false testimony until he told the truth.

Feradach ruled for twenty years according to the Lebor Gabála and Keating, twenty-two according to the Annals, before dying a natural death at Tara

Hill of Tara

The Hill of Tara , located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Leinster, Ireland...

. In all sources he was succeeded by Fíatach Finn

Fiatach Finn

Fiatach Finn mac Dáire, a distant descedant of Óengus Tuirmech Temrach, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a king of the Ulaid, later a High King of Ireland, and the eponymous ancestor of the early Medieval Ulster dynasty of the Dál Fiatach...

. The Lebor Gabála synchronises his reign with that of the Roman emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Domitian

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

 (AD 81-96) and the death of Pope Clement I

Pope Clement I

Starting in the 3rd and 4th century, tradition has identified him as the Clement that Paul mentioned in Philippians as a fellow laborer in Christ.While in the mid-19th century it was customary to identify him as a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the Emperor...

(AD 99). The chronology of Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn dates his reign to AD 5-25, that of the Annals of the Four Masters to AD 14-36.