Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Kirkuk-Sulaimaniya
The foundation of the Chaldean Catholic diocese of Kirkuk has been attributed to Yohannan VIII Hormizd, who was recognised by the Vatican as patriarchal administrator of the patriarch of Babylon in 1780 and, after five decades of disputes and confrontations, as patriarch in 1830. According to the Chaldean Catholic priest Joseph Tfinkdji, Yohannan Hormizd visited the town of Kirkuk in 1789 while travelling from Mosul to Baghdad, and converted its Church of the East community to Catholicism. He is said to have consecrated a Chaldean metropolitan for Kirkuk, Mar Abraham, who resided in Aïnqawa during his reign, and died between 1821 and 1824. The source for this assertion is not clear. Abraham is not mentioned by any other source, and as Yohannan Hormizd himself (then considered by the Vatican to be merely metropolitan of Mosul) is styled 'metropolitan of Kirkuk' in a colophon of 1798, the Kirkuk region would seem to have been part of the diocese of Mosul at this period.
Cormac mac Art Ó Melaghlain
Cormac was born sometime in the early 1180s to the King of Mide, Art mac Mael Sechlainn meic Domnaill Ua Mael Sechlainn, who reigned from 1173 to 1184. His family had been rulers of the Kingdom of Mide since at least the early 6th century. Initially known as the Clann Cholmáin, they were a branch of the southern Uí Néill. They had taken the surname Ua Mael Sechlainn after their prestigious ancestor, Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid, who reigned as High King of Ireland from 845 to 860; his greatest achievement was in preventing the Vikings from controlling any substantial part of the island and confining them to the coasts. One of his descendants, and another of Cormac's ancestors, was Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill Ua Maelsechlainn (known as Máel Sechnaill II) who was High King before and after the reign of Brian Boru.