Congal's epithets "cáech" and "cláen" mean "squinting" or "half blind". An ancient law on bees in the "Bechbretha", written within a generation of Congal's death, links these epithets with Congal being blinded in one eye by bees owned by Domnall mac Áedo. This, it says, put Congal out of the kingship of Tara. No later sources make Congal a High King of Ireland, which is largely the same as the kingship of Tara, but the "Cath Maige Rath" echoes the "Bechbretha" in claiming that the men of Ulaid demanded that the eye of the beekeeper's son – a son of the High King Domnall mac Áedo – be put out in repayment.