Diarmait mac Máel na mBó (died 7 February 1072) was King of Leinster, as well as High King of Ireland (with opposition). He was one of the most important and significant kings in Ireland in the pre-Norman era.. Background Diarmait belonged to the Uí Cheinnselaig, a kin group of south-east Leinster centred on Ferns. His father, Donnchad mac Diarmata, became known more commonly by the epithet Máel na mBó ("Baldy of the Cattle"), hence Diarmait's patronym. The last of Diarmait's ancestors to have been counted as king of all Leinster, Crimthann mac Énnai, died in the late 5th century; but Diarmait's more immediate forebears, most recently his great-grandfather Domnall mac Cellaig (died 974), had been counted among the kings of the Uí Cheinnselaig. Diarmait's mother was Aife, daughter of Gilla Pátraic mac Donnchada, king of Osraige. He had at least one sibling, a brother named Domnall whose son Donnchad mac Domnaill Remair later became king of Leinster. The Uí Cheinnselaig had been prominent in earlier times, but their power had been broken at the battle of Áth Senaig in 738. The rival Uí Dúnlainge, based in northern Leinster around Naas and Kildare, who also enjoyed the support of the powerful Clann Cholmáin kings of Mide, dominated Leinster until the time of Brian Bóruma. The decline of Clann Cholmáin, and the defeat inflicted on the Uí Dúnlainge, led by Máel Mórda mac Murchada, at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, changed the political landscape to favour the Uí Cheinnselaig once more. The return of the Vikings to Ireland in the early 10th century occasioned the development of new towns on the coasts. The towns, centres of trade and manufacture, would give significant political power to those who could control their wealth. Kings of Leinster found themselves in a particularly advantageous position to exploit this new wealth as three of the five principal towns lay in or near Leinster. In Leinster proper, in the south-eastern corner dominated by the Uí Cheinnselaig, lay Wexford. To the west of this, in the smaller kingdom of Osraige, which had been attached to Leinster since the late 10th century, was Waterford. Finally, the most important Viking town in Ireland, Dublin, lay at the north-eastern edge of Leinster. Compared to this, kings in the north and west of Ireland had easy access to no towns, while those in the south, in Munster, had access to two: Cork