In the Books of Armagh and Ballymote, and other ancient records, are given some curious accounts of the customs used in the interment of the ancient kings and chiefs; Laoghaire (or Leary), Monarch of Ireland in the fifth century, was buried in the rampart or rath called Rath Leary, at Tara, with his military weapons and armour on him; his face turned southwards, bidding defiance) as it were, to his enemies the men of Leinster.
Near Lough Gill in Sligo are two great cairns still remaining, at which place was probably an ancient cemetery of some of the kings of Connaught; and another large one, near Cong, In the county Mayo. There are still some remains of Reilig-na-Riogh at Cruaghan or Croaghan in the county Roscommon, consisting of a circular area of aboat two hundred feet in diameter, surrounded with some remains of an ancient stone ditch; and in the interior are heaps of rude stones piled upon each other, as stated in "Weld's Survey of Roscommon." Dun Aengus or the Fortress of Aengus, erected on the largest of the Arran Islands, off the coast of Galway, and situated on a tremendous cliff overhanging the sea, consists of a stone work of immense strength of Cyclopean architecture, composed of large stones without mortar or cement. It is of a circular form, and capable of containing within its area two hundred cows.
In the Gaelic divisions which preceded the seventeenth century, most of Leitrim, along with Cavan, was part of the kingdom of Bréifne. Leitrim became known as Bréifne O’Rourke, while Cavan was Bréifne O’Reilly. The O’Rourkes ruled the territory for more than 700 years until the final dispossessions of the seventeenth century. A number of the sept (branch of a clan) remained in the North West of Ireland and became established in Hi Fiachrach, which at one time encompassed what is now Mayo and Sligo in Connaught The McGrails were described in Milesian Families as being of the "Hy-Brune" tribe. Some sources claim that the McGrail Clan is of Dalriadan origin, and specifically from the line of King Dalriadan Fergus Mor MacEarca. This King was banished from Ireland along with 350 chiftains, in 327 AD.
The Scottish Clan MacNeill, traces it's line back to the pagan Ancient High King Of Ireland, NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES, who founded the "Ui'Neill" line of Kings, the first of a 600 yeare clan dynasty. He ascended the throne in 379 AD and died in 405 AD. It was during his reign that St. Patrick came to Erie.(389 AD) His 21st descendant in line, also named Niall, left Ireland to establish a colony in Scotland in 1049, and founded the Clan Niall on the Island of Barra. Kisimul Castle was built on Barra in the mid 1000's and remains to this day the ancestral seate of the Clan and Muircertach of the Leather Cloaks. The clan would eventually split into two affiliated entities, the "MacNeill" of Bara, and the "McNeill" of Gigha/Colonsay, under Torquil MacNeil in 1427. In the 1400's, the McNeill's sent heavily armed warriors to fight as mercenaries at the behest of various regional chieftains in their ongoing internecine wars. These families were known as "galloglass". THE ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS", records the death of a Scottish galloglass captain "MacNeill", who was killed fighting for the O'Rourke's. In the 17th and 18th Century, the McNeill's sent 58 families from the Western Isles of Scotland to Ireland, and they originally settled in Antrim and Derry.
Archdiocese founded by St. Patrick about 445, as the primatial and metropolitan see of Ireland. The Archdiocese of Armagh at present comprises almost the whole of the counties Armagh and Louth, a great part of Tyrone, and portions of Derry and of Meath. It is divided into fifty-five parishes, two of which, Armagh and Dundalk, are mensal parishes attached to the see. St. Patrick, having received some grants of land from the chieftain Daire, on the hill called Ard-Macha (the Height of Macha), built a stone church on the summit and a monastery and some other religious edifices round about, and fixed on this place for his metropolitan see. In the course of time other religious bodies settled in Armagh, such as the Culdees, who built a monastery there in the eighth century. The city of Armagh was thus until modern times a purely ecclesiastical establishment. About 448, St. Patrick, aided by Secundinus and Auxilius, two of his disciples, held a synod at Armagh, of which some of the canons are still extant. One of these expressly mentions that all difficult cases of conscience should be referred to the judgment of the Archbishop of Armagh, and that if too difficult to be disposed of by him with his counsellors they should be passed on to the Apostolic See of Rome. In Irish times, the primacy of Armagh was never questioned, and for many centuries the primates were accustomed to make circuits and visitations through various parts of the country for the collection of their dues. This was called the "Cattlecess", or the "Law of St. Patrick". Beginning in 734, during the incumbency of Primate Congus, it continued till long after the English invasion, but ceased as soon as English prelates succeeded to the see. Two kings gave it their royal sanction: Felim, King of Munster, in 822, and the famous Brian Boru, in 1006. The record of the latter's sanction is preserved in the Book of Armagh, in the handwriting of Brian Boru's chaplain. To add solemnity to their collecting tours, the primates were in the habit of carrying with them the shrine of St. Patrick. The seizure of the primacy of Armagh by laymen in the eleventh century has received great prominence owing to St. Bernard's denunciation of it in his life of St. Malachy, but the abuse was not without a parallel on the continent of Europe.
In 1111 he held a great synod at Fiadh-Mic-Aengus at which were present fifty bishops, 300 priests, and 3,000 other ecclesiastics, and also Murrough O'Brian, King of southern Ireland, and his nobles. During his incumbency the priory of Sts. Peter and Paul at Armagh was re-founded by Imar, the learned preceptor of St. Malachy. This was the first establishment in Ireland into which the Canons Regular of St. Augustine had been introduced. Roderic O'Connor, monarch of Ireland, afterwards granted it an annual pension for a public school. After a short interval, Celsus was succeeded by St. Malachy O'Morgair (1134-37), who later suffered many tribulations in trying to effect a reformation in the diocese. He resigned the see after three years and retired to the Bishopric of Down. In 1139 he went to Rome and solicited the Pope for two palliums, one for the See of Armagh and the other probably for the new Metropolitan See of Cashel. The following yeare he introduced the Cistercian Order into Ireland, by the advice of St. Bernard. He died at Clairvaux, while making a second journey to Rome. St. Malachy is honoured as the patron saint of the diocese. Gelasius succeeded him and during a long incumbency of thirty-seven years held many important synods which effected great reforms.
At the Synod of Kells, held in 1152 and presided over by Cardinal Paparo, the Pope's legate, Gelasius received the pallium and at the same time three others were handed over to the new metropolitan sees of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam. The successor of Gelasius in the see, Cornelius Mac Concaille, who died at Chambery the following year, on a journey to Rome, has been venerated ever since in that locality as a saint. He was succeeded by Gilbert O'Caran (1175-80), during whose incumbency the see suffered greatly from the depredations of the Anglo-Norman invaders. William Fitz-Aldelm pillaged Armagh and carried away St. Patrick's crosier, called the "Staff of Jesus". O'Caran's successor was Thomas O'Conor (1181-1201). In the yeare after his succession to the see, Pope Lucius III, at the instance of John Comyn, the first English prelate in the See of Dublin, tried to abolish the old Irish custom according to which the primates claimed the right of making solemn circuits and visitations in the province of Leinster as well as those of Tuam and Munster. The papal bull issued was to the effect that no archbishop or bishop should hold any assembly or ecclesiastical court in the Diocese of Dublin, or treat of the ecclesiastical causes and affairs of the said diocese, without the consent of the Archbishop of Dublin, if the latter were actually in his see, unless specially authorized by the Papal See or the Apostolic legate. This Bull laid the groundwork of a bitter and protracted controversy between the Archbishops of Armagh and of Dublin, concerning the primatial right of the former to have his cross carried before him and to try ecclesiastical cases in the diocese of the latter. This contest, however, must not be confounded with that regarding the primacy, which did not arise till the seventeenth century.