WESTMEATH
Ancient Meath constituted the Chief parts of the English Pale in the reign of
Henry the Eighth and was divided into the counties but its extent was diminished.
(Modern Nobility only for this county)
Brega (Breaga)
The eastern
part of Meath is also known as the kingdom of Brega. The name derives from the
plain where Tara (Temuir), the ancient capital of Ireland, stood. For over 500
years, beginning with Niall of the Nine Hostages in 445 A.D., the
Southern Uí Neill held the kingship at Tara, giving the title-holder
the Kingship of Ireland as well. The ancient home to the kings of the sub-kingdom
of Brega was at Knowth. Prior to the arrival of the sons of Niall
of the Nine Hostages in the 5th and 6th centuries, this area of Ireland was
probably inhabited by the tribes of the Uí Failge, Uí Enechglaiss
and Dal Messin Corb, who later retreated into Leinster; the Cianachta, of Munster
origin; the Déisi and Corco Roída, claimed to be descended from
nephews of Conn of the Hundred Battles; the Uí Maic Uais, descended from
one of the Three Collas; the Delbna septs;
the Gailenga Brega, the Luigni Mide and Fir Chul,
the Saithne Brega, and the Mugdorma, among others. A steady push by the
Cenél nEógain in the 7th and 8th centuries reduced the size of the
Airghiallan federation as the people of northern Airghialla came to be treated
as sub-kingdoms of the Cenél nEógain. During a similar period the southern
branches of the Airghialla came under the dominion of the southern Uí Néill
kingdoms of Mide and Brega. In 1026, An army
was led by Brian Boru's son and he took the hostages of Mide and Brega and the
foreigners and and the Laigin and the
Osraige. In Co. Cavan, at Mellifont
stands the first Cistercian monastery founded in 1142.
Mide
(Meath) Mide (Midhe), "the middle kingdom," consisted of
the present Counties of Meath and Westmeath, with parts of Cavan
and Longford. It was one of the five early provinces of Ireland, and by 400-500
A.D. it comprised much of the territory of the Southern Uí Neill with its
capital at the royal site of Tara, Ireland's first captial. In 1172 Henry II bestowed
Meath as an earldom to Hugh de
Lacy, creating an English territorial nobility that lasted into the 17th century.
The county of Meath came into existence in the 13th century. By the 14th century
the territory of Meath was split down the middle by as a territory known as Trim.
As the English hold in Ireland deteriorated in the 13th and 14th centuries, only
part of Meath remained inside the English Pale (territory) and under direct rule
from Dublin and Kerry. Following
the 16th-century reconquest of Ireland, Westmeath was separated from Meath in
1541 and ultimately passed into the hands of English landlords. Meath's
northern boundary, west of Drogheda, was the scene of the Battle of the Boyne
(1690), in which William III defeated James II and asserted English Protestant
rule over Ireland.
KILDARE; Cill Dara, 'The Cell of the Oak': overlooking
the plain of the river Liffey, this double monastery of nuns and monks is the
only one of its kind in Ireland. Kildare was founded in 470 by Saint Brigid; and
the Brigantes. The king
of Leinster was one of many who had no hesitation in supporting her cause,
and it was he who made the generous grant of this site, Drom Criadh, 'the ridge
of clay'. In its centre stands a giant oak tree, under which the founder built
her cell and oratory, hence the name, Ceall Dara. Saint Brigid had other foundations
around Ireland, prior to Kildare, but this has been her most lasting legacy. The
quality of mercy lies at the hear of her sisters' work here, a fact not lost on
the sick and the poor, who have come here in their multitudes over the centuries.