Rudraige, son of Sitric, son of Dub, son of Fomor, son of Airgetmar, 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...

. He took power after killing his predecessor, Crimthann Coscrach

Crimthann Coscrach

Crimthann Coscrach , son of Fedlimid Fortrén, son of Fergus Fortamail, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. He took power after killing his predecessor, Énna Aignech, and ruled for four or seven years, after which he was killed by Rudraige mac...

, and ruled for thirty or seventy years, after which he died of plague in Airgetglenn. He was succeeded by Finnat Már, son of Nia Segamain

Nia Segamain

Nia Segamain, son of Adamair, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. He took power after killing his predecessor, Conall Collamrach. Geoffrey Keating says his mother was the presumed woodland goddess Flidais of the Tuatha Dé Danann, whose magic...

. Rudraige was particularly associated with the northern part of Ireland: the dynasty of the Dál nAraidi

Dál nAraidi

Dál nAraidi was a kingdom of the Cruthin in the north-east of Ireland in the first millennium. The lands of the Dál nAraidi appear to correspond with the Robogdii of Ptolemy's Geographia, a region shared with Dál Riata...

, who ruled eastern Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

 in the early Middle Ages, traced their descent from him, and 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...

names him as the grandfather of the Ulaid

Ulaid

The Ulaid or Ulaidh were a people of early Ireland who gave their name to the modern province of Ulster...

 hero Conall Cernach

Conall Cernach

Conall Cernach is a hero of the Ulaidh in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He is said to have always slept with the head of a Connachtman under his knee. His epithet is normally translated as "victorious" or "triumphant", although it is an obscure word, and some texts struggle to explain it...

. The Lebor Gabála synchronises the start of his reign with that of Ptolemy VIII Physcon

Ptolemy VIII Physcon

Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II , nicknamed , Phúskōn, Physcon for his obesity, was a king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. His complicated career started in 170 BC, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes invaded Egypt, captured his brother Ptolemy VI Philometor and let him continue as a puppet monarch...

 (145-116 BC), and his death with that of Ptolemy X Alexander I

Ptolemy X Alexander I

Ptolemy X Alexander I was King of Egypt from 110 BC to 109 BC and 107 BC till 88 BC.He was the son of Ptolemy VIII Physcon and Cleopatra III. In 110 BC he became King with his mother as co-regent, after his mother had deposed his brother Ptolemy IX Lathyros. However, in 109 BC he was deposed by...

 (110-88 BC) in Egypt. The chronology of 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...

's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn dates his reign to 184-154 BC, that of 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...

to 289-219 BC.