County Monaghan [5 baronies]
The North Gaels, between about A.D. 1 and 400 expanded their foothold in the northwest of Ireland and established themselves as Sacral ("totemistically" sacred) High-Kings at the ancient site of Tara near Dublin with the aid of their allies, the Laiginian tribe of Airgialla. It is likely that before the Gaels arrived and absorbed Bute into the Cenél Comgall of Dál Riata that the island was home to a people who spoke a Brythonic language (akin to modern day Welsh). Later during the Viking period the island was known as Rothesay and the main town on the island was Bute.
The ancient kingdom of Airgialla (Oriel) was formed around AD 330. At one time, it included the southern parts of the modern counties of Tyrone and Derry, as well as much of Armagh, Monaghan and Fermanagh with its royal site at Clogher. Monaghan and Tyrone counties was inhabited in the time of Ptolemy by the Scoti, who then possessed all the inland parts of Ireland. The Romans never invaded Ireland, which they called Scotia, although they traded with the inhabitants, the Gaels, or the Scots as they were also known. Monaghan afterwards formed part of the district of Oriel or Orgial, which also comprehended Louth and part of Armagh; but it was more generally known by the name of Mac Mahon's country.
The Mugdorna (Located in western Co. Cavan and northern Co. Meath) occupied this territory prior to 800 AD, when they were pushed out of Meath and into Monaghan and replaced by the Gailenga. The Gailenga Mora left their name in the barony of Morgallion (Machaire Gailenga, "the plain of the Gailenga") in County Meath. Over six centuries later, in the 13th century, Ros is still in the land of the Mugdorna, as indeed is Donaghmoyne.
The word Ulster itself is derived from the Viking word Uladztír, based on the Irish words Ulaidh and Tír. Once the Vikings began to raid in 795, Ireland was permanently occupied, wholly or partly, by foreigners. The Viking tide was turned by Muircertach of the Leather Cloaks, Niall Glundubh's son and successor. His base was the Grianan of Aileach near Derry. By the 9th century Airgialla proper, as a political entity, was practically confined to the modern counties Armagh, Monaghan, Fermanagh, and part of Louth, with the Uí Thuirtri kingdom in east Tyrone in process of being absorbed into the Cenél nEógain over-kingdom of Ailech.
Skye, by the end of the sixth century was an island divided, with a mainly Gaelic presence in the South end consisting of the original Celtic stock from Ireland, and an influx of the ambitious Dalriadan Gaels, while in the North the Picts had become the predominant force. King William the Lion of Scotland seized control of Bute consisting of Great Cumbray Island - but he and his descendants had to defend their western territory from the Vikings. In 1230 King Hakon of Norway sent a force to Bute to retake it - and were confronted by the Scots in a castle overlooking Rothesay Bay.
The Cenél Eoghan were the Royal Clan of the North Gaels, associated with the High-Kingship of Tara with their centrally dominant fortress of Aliech in northeast Donegal. Their original patrimony included the modern baronies of Raphoe and lnishowen in Donegal, but from their center at the great fort of Ailech in Inishowen, they soon spread throughout Derry and much of Tyrone. Until the mid-thirteenth century the leading family of the Cenél Eoghain was MacLoughlin (Mac Lochlainn) of lnishowen; in 1241 they lost a decisive battle to their kinsmen the Ó Neills, and afterwards they declined in power, though a branch became established in County Leitrim under the O’Rourkes. The O’Hegartys (O hEighceartaigh) of the Cenél Eoghain were chiefs in the present barony of Loughinsholin in the south of County Derry, and by about the beginning of the seventeenth century some of them settled in the baronies of Barrymore and Carbery West in County Cork.
| Cremorne |
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| Dartree
(Dartraige) |
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| Farney |
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| Monaghan |
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| Trough |
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