Another king, another hostel, another night of destruction
The Destruction of Da Choca’s Hostel is the second great togail — destruction tale — of the Cycle of Kings, paralleling the more famous Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel in its structure. Like Conaire Mór before him, the king at the centre of this story is a man whose geasa — sacred personal prohibitions — are stripped away one by one until he has no supernatural protection left, and what follows is inevitable.
The King
Cormac Conn Longas — the exiled son of King Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster, who had gone into exile in Connacht — was on his way back to Ulster when he stopped at the hostel of Da Choca on the River Shannon. He had geasa governing where he could stop, when he could travel, and who he could eat with. The road had forced him to break several of them before he ever reached Da Choca’s door.
The Night
The hostel was attacked. The pattern is the same as Da Derga’s Hostel: a long night of fighting, defenders going down one by one, the king at the centre slowly losing the protection that his violated geasa had once provided. The supernatural dimension of the king’s vulnerability — the way the broken taboos eroded his luck and his strength — is visible in every stage of the fight.
The Destruction
By morning, Cormac Conn Longas and his men were dead. The hostel was destroyed. Ireland had lost another king whose fate had been written in the series of small violations that accumulated on the road — none of them freely chosen, all of them inescapable given the circumstances, and all of them fatal. The togail tales collectively argue that fate is not a sudden event but a slow dismantling, prohibition by prohibition, until nothing remains.
Key facts about Destruction of Da Choca’s Hostel
- Irish title: Togail Bruidne Da Choca (“The Destruction of Da Choca’s Hostel”)
- King: Cormac Conn Longas — exiled son of Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster
- Location: Da Choca’s Hostel on the River Shannon
- Structural parallel: Mirrors Togail Bruidne Da Derga — same togail pattern of geasa violation leading to destruction
- The mechanism: Sacred personal prohibitions (geasa) broken one by one on the journey; each violation weakened his protection
- Result: Cormac Conn Longas and his men killed; the hostel destroyed
- Thematic note: The togail tradition argues that doom is not sudden but accumulates through small, inescapable violations
- Cycle: Cycle of Kings
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