| Clanawley |
- Named in honor of clan MacAuley
(MacAwley), a branch of the Maguires.
- The homeland of the O'Droma (Drum)
family is cited near here in the parish of Kinawley, a parish which extends into
northern Co. Cavan. Saint Ita is the
most famous woman saint in Ireland after Saint Brigid, and is known as the Brigid
of Munster.
- O'Naughton of Athlone
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| Clankelly |
- Named for sept of the Clann Cheallaigh (e.g. Mac Domhnaill or Mac Donnell).
Ceann Coradh, now Kincora,
was the stronghold of Brian, near the mouth of the Shannon river. For
1031, Diarmait, mac Domhnaill, mic Faoláin, king of the Deisi. The
names of the Gallowglass who then came and remained in the county are: in
Connacht – Mac Domhnaill, Mac Ruaidhri and Mac Suibhne.
- O'Cannon,
ousted as kings of Cenél Conaill in the 13th century, settled here for
a time here. Arda Midhair, The Ó Dochartaigh
(O'Dohertys), of Cenél Conaill, were cited as chiefs of Arda Midhair (Ardmire,
perhaps the Finn Valley) in the barony of Raphoe, county Donegal. At the turn
of the 13th century two Ó Dochartaigh were noted as kings of Tír Chonaill,
breaking a long hold the O'Cannons and O'Muldorys (Mulderrys) had on this title.
Early prominent septs of Cenél Aedha in
the area of Tirhugh included Ó Maeldoraidh, Ó Canannáin (O'Cannon) and
Ó Gallchobhair (O'Gallagher).
- MacDonnell of Clan Celleagh
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| Coole |
- O'Caiside (O'Cassidy) is sited as Chief of Coole. There is a dispute
as to whether the Ó Cassidy of Clogher
belonged to the Fir Manaigh, the first Celtic settlers of County Fermanagh, or
migrated to the area in the sixth century A.D. during the time of St. Molaise
who founded the monastery at Devenish Island. Ui Caiside was closely linked to
the monastery and had access to its school at a time when education was denied
to most. The Ui Caiside served as hereditary physicians to the Mac Uidhir (Maguire
of Fermanagh), the chieftains of Fermanagh.
- Devenish
Island is situated in the entrance to Lower Lough Erne, about two miles from
the town of Enniskillen. Its Gaelic name is Daimh-inis; the Island of the Oxen.
The foundation of the abbey whose ruins still remain is attributed to St. Molaisse,
a native of the district of Carbery, in the county Sligo.
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- Enniskillen, its name from
the island in Lough Erne, in which it is situated, was formerly called Inniskillen,
and was, previously to the time of James I., merely a stronghold of Maguire, chieftain
of Fermanagh. On the lakes borders are rolling farmland, with limestone mountains
rising in the southwest and the remainder in that part of the town which extends
into the parish of Rossory. In the townland of Toneystick and parish of Enniskillen,
is a suburb in which is an old redoubt, called the East Fort; and beyond the western
bridge is another suburb, in the parish of Rossory in which is the West Fort.
On the border of Lough Erne stands Bellisle, the beautiful and romantic seate
of the late Earl of Rosse.
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Glenree (Oriel) | - Oriel,
or Oirghialla, anciently extended from this Glenree to Lough Erne, and comprised
the counties of Louth, Armagh, Monaghan, and in later ages the whole of the County
of Fermanagh, as we learn from O'Dugan, who, in his topographical poem, places
Tooraah, the country of O'Flanagan, in the north-west of Fermanagh; Lurg, the
country of Muldoon, in the north of the same County; and the entire of Maguire's
country in it. That the County of Fermanagh was considered a part of Oriel, at
least since the Maguires got possession of it, is further corroborated by the
fact, that throughout these Annals Maguire is called the pillar and prop of the
Oriel. Both Breffnys (Leitrim and
Fermanagh) anciently formed part of Connaught, but the new county was incorporated
with Ulster. The chief river is the Erne, which has its source in Lough Granny,
near the foot of Bruce hill, on the south-western confines of the county, whence
it pursues a northern course into Lough Oughter, and hence winds in the same direction
by Belturbet into Lough Erne, which,
at its head, forms the northern limit of the county.
- The
Saithne were closely related to the Cianacht and Dealbhna. They originally
inhabited a territory in the southern part of the kingdom
of Brega (Westmeath), the kingship of which they in ancient times had shared
with kindred groups. 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. Their lands in Brega lay southeasterly,
midway between the River Boyne and the River Liffey. The
Síl Áeda Sláine (of Brega) and Clan Cholmáin (of Mide).
Their later representatives were the O’Caseys. The O’Caseys (O Cathasaigh) were
originally lords of Saithne, in the north of the present County Dublin, until
they were dispossessed by the Normans under Sir
Hugh de Lacy soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion (twelfth cenwry). Afterwards
they became an important Erenagh (church) family, being hereditary keepers of
Kilarduff and Dunfeeny in County Mayo, Cloondara and Tisrara in County Roscommon,
and Devinish in County Fermanagh.
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Knockninny | - A MacManus
sept (of Clan Maguire) was centered
here prior to the 1400s.
- It was noted as an early Maguire
stronghold.
- The barony is named for hill of St.
Ninnidh on the southern shore of Upper Loch Erne. Lough
Ree into and out of which the River Shannon runs which to its south is Clanmacnois.
The track of locations would then make sense with St. Ciaran settling in Clanmacnois.
Since its history has its location at the Mull of Kintyre where Saint Columba
arrived from Ireland in 574 AD. He is often called St.
Kieran the Younger to distinguish him from St.
Kieran of Saighir.
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- The Monaghan sept were said to be of the original inhabitants of the
area, the Fir Manach, the namesake for Fermanagh.
- The O'Muldoons
were chiefs here. Milesian
Muldoon; O'Maoldubhain had a brother Caibre, a quo Clann Ciabre, or Carbery,
of Ulster. Milesian Caibre-Lifechair: Line
of Connellan (Condeilbhan), Ó Neill, Campbell. The Three
Collas were three brothers, sons of Eochaid Doimhlen, son of the High King
Cairbre Lifechair. The foundation of Meath
or Mide is ascribed to Tuathal Techtmar
in Irish history situated between Uladh
and Lagin, with its chief ráth
at Tara.
- The MacEntaggarts were said to be originally from here.
Under various synonyms MacEtegart, MacTaggart, Ateggart etc., it appeared often
in sixteenth and seventeenth century records of counties Antrim, Derry, Fermanagh,
Donegal and Armagh and also in Louth. Ballymactaggart is a place in the barony
of Lurg.
- The Mac Tullys (Muintir Tiathligh) are cited as chiefs
of Lough Lir near here. Colla
da Crioch
- MacDuilgen or MacDwilgan, not mentioned in O'Dugan,
is A.D. 924, in the Annals of the Four Masters, given as Fergus MacDuilgen, lord
of Lurg.
- The residences of the undertakers in England: The
barony of Lurg was set apart for Norfolk and Suffolk, whilst Mageraboy was allotted
to Scottish families.
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Magheraboy |
- In the 8th century this area was known as Cenel Enda. Cenél
Enda (Énna or Eanna) Located in the southern Co. Donegal and northern Fermanagh
region. According to Ptolemy, Leitrim and Breifne,
together with that comprised in the counties of Fermanagh and Cavan, was occupied
by the Erdini, called in Irish Ernaigh, who possessed the entire county bordering
on Lough Erne. About the 5th century Enda, the youngest son of Niall of the Nine
Hostages, received territory in modern co. Donegal. The Book of Lecan places Cenél
Enda mic Neill west of Lough Erne. Brian, son of Eachod, and grandson of Muredach,
first king of Connaught of the Scottish race.
- The O'Flanagan
are also given as a chief of Tuath Ratha in this barony. The Uí
Chremthainn anciently inhabited the territory between Lough Erne and the River
Blackwater, in what is now County Fermanagh and the north of County Monaghan.
The chief branches of the Uí Chremthainn include the Clann Lugain, and
also the O’Mulroonys or Moroneys and the O’Boylans.
- The O’Boylans
(O Baoigheallain) were of the same stock as the O’Flanagans (O Flannagain) of
northwest Fermanagh. The O’Boylans were, after the Anglo-Norman invasion, lords
of all Oriel, a widespread territory stretching
Ulster from Fermanagh
to Louth. Later, in the thirteenth century, their power in Oriel was subdued
by the MacMahons, and their territory was reduced to what is now the barony of
Dartry in the west of County Monaghan, an area then known as Dartraighe.
- In the late 10th and early 11th centuries the sept of Mael Ruanaigh
are noted in the annals as kings of
Cremthainn, although this appears to be a reference to the district of Cremthann
in Connacht. The Mac Murchadha family were prominent as lords of Truagh in northern
Monaghan in the barony of Trough, before being overshadowed by the MacKenna(n)
sept, of the southern Uí Neill. Included among the prominent Aighialla
families were the Ua Baigeallain (O Boylan) of Síl Maeluidir in the area
of Dartraige (Darty, western co. Monaghan). In the 12th century the Ua Cearbhaill
(O'Carroll) were prominent among the kings of Arghialla. By the 13th century the
family of MacMahon (MacMathghamhna) held the superior authority with the title
king of Oirghialla (Oriel), by that time a much reduced sub-kingdom: Cavan
and Sligo.
- The O'Bannion
from Lower Ormonde were later in Co. Fermanagh. Mac Giolla Fhinnein were chiefs
of Muintir Pheodachain and held the kingship of Fir Manach for a time. O'Dubhdara
(O'Darrah) is cited as a chief of Oirghialla. The O'Maolruanaigh (Mulrooney) clan
held great power here before the rise of the Maguires.
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| Magherastephana |
- Mac Caffrey of the Maguire
clan centered at Ballymacaffry.
- Fánad,
or Fanat, is the peninsula between Lough Swilly and Mulroy Bay, in the northeast
of the barony of Kilmacrenan, county Donegal. The sept of Ua Bresleáin
(O'Breslen or Breslin), a branch of the Cenél Enda (MacLysaght) although
cited by others as a branch of Cenél Conaill, are noted as early chiefs
of Fanad, later noted as Brehons for Maguire of Fermanagh. The Mac Suibhnes (Mac
Sweeney Fanat) are not as chiefs of Fanad in the late 14th century.
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| Tirkennedy |
- Named for the sept of Fergus Cennfhota (e.g. MacMaster and Masterson).
- The O'Devine family ruled as Lords of Tirkennedy before the power
of the Maguires. Of the Donemanagh area of north Tyrone from at least the early
17th century. The Ó Duibhíns were part of the Cineál Eoghain confederation,
and within it were most often found in association with the McNamees and the O'Gormleys.
Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (Torna), the name is spelled Ó Duibhín or Ó Duibhin.
The O'Gormleys belong to another branch of the Cineál Eoghain, known as
the Cineál
Moain.
- In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, the
head chief of this territory was O'Duibhdara or O'Dwyer, whom O'Dugan mentions
as chief of the race of Daimhin amongst
others, Giolla Chriosd O Duibhdara, prince of Fermanagh, who A.D. 1076, was killed
at Daimhinis or Devenish Island, in Lough Erne. From Erna, the favourite waiting-maid
of Maud or Meav the queen of Connaught.
- Ó Daimhín between
780 and 1447, the later ones being located in Fermanagh. The kingdom of Clogher
— the name persists in the small town of Clogher on the Fermanagh–Tyrone border,
and in the diocese of Clogher — was known as Clochar Uí Dhaimhín. MacLysaght
— followed by most other experts — derives Devine from Ó Daimhín, and places
them in the barony of Tirkennedy in Co Fermanagh, along with Mac Uinnseannáin.
- The MacManus family were hereditary supervisors of the fisheries
under MacGuire here.
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