First King of Munster
Éber Finn mac Míl was one of the two sons of Míl Espáine who divided Ireland after the Milesian conquest. Éremon took the northern half. Éber Finn took the south — Munster, the province associated with music, poetry, sovereignty, and the rich pastoral landscape of the south. His name means “Éber the Fair” or “Éber the Bright,” and it fits.
The division lasted less than a year.
Éber Finn’s wives looked north and coveted the hills in Éremon’s half. They told their husband the southern share was worse. That complaint was enough. The brothers who had crossed an ocean together and overcome the divine people of Ireland went to war with each other over which half was better.
Éber Finn was killed by Éremon at the Battle of Airgetros. The southern kingdom passed to his brother’s control. The unity that Amergin‘s arbitration had imposed was gone before the first year was out.
His death is Ireland’s first civil war. The Tuatha Dé Danann had been defeated together. The moment that was done, the victors started fighting each other for the better share of what they’d won.
Éber Finn is the ancestor of the Munster dynasties — the Eóganacht and the Dál Cais, from whom Brian Boru descended, both traced their lineage through him back to the Milesian source. He is the south’s founding king, brief and brilliant.
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