§529 Genelach .H. Maile Duin [O Muldoon] Of the Barony of Lurg, Co. Fermanagh; Index to the O'Clery Book of GenealogiesCounty Fermanagh or in Irish "Fear Manach" so called from the tribe of Fir-Monach, (O' Dugan), 'the men of Monach', who were originally a Leinster tribe, so named from their ancestor, Monach, fifth in descent from Caluvmore, monarch of Ireland from A.D. 120 to 123. Moreover, north of the lake, the Fir Lurg, an Oriel tribe, had taken over the modern barony of Lurg, towards Tyrone. Other Oriel families began to move south from Clogher. At the coming of Christianity, Fermanagh was partly independent, partly under the Oriel tribes and partly under Connaught influence. In the early ages, according to our old annalists, the lake called Lough Erne suddenly burst forth and overflowed a great tract of land which was called Magh Geannain or the "Plain of Geannan," so called from Geannan, one of the Firbolg kings. This lake was anciently called Lough Saimer. Barony Lurg; meaning "a track": sometimes it is merely shortened from Lurga meaning "a shin" or "long hill", "a long strip of land." The townland of Ballymactaggart is located to the west of Drumpeen and south-west of Bunaninver. It contains 122 acres and 14 perches. A lightly forested area is evident bordering Drumpeen townland to the east while more densely forested areas are located in the north-west of the townland. Ballymactaggart townland to the west is now densely forested throughout where it adjoines Drumpeen. The church or chapel of Ballymactaggart stood on the eastern shore of Lower Lough Erne about one quarter of a mile due east of Davy's Island. No trace of this island now exists, but until about twenty years ago a few of the stones still lay on the site. It was probably still in use at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and was most likely served by a vicar appointed either by the Augustinian Canons or by the Rector of Derryvullan, in which parish it lay, and for the northern part of which it probably served as a chapel-of-ease. The forest is located north-west of Enniskillen and extends east from the shores of Lough Erne. Giolla Chriosd O Duibhdara, prince of Fermanagh, who A.D. 1076, was killed at Daimhinis or Devenish Island, in Lough Erne.
The Manapii lived south of what is now known as Dublin, gave their name to Fermanagh and cognate with the Manapia from the Isle of Man. In Co Fermanagh, where the name Monaghan is numerous, the family are thought to be part of the original inhabitants of the area, the Fir Manach, from whom the county gets its name. Their base was in the district of Lurg. From here the Monaghan name migrated into the adjoining counties of Monaghan and Derry. Celtic Tribes
The Erdini, according to some authorities, were the inhabitants of this district FERMANAGH in the time of Ptolemy; but Whitaker considers it to have been part of the Nagnatae. In ancient lore the kingdom of Cruachan (Connacht) was ruled from a ritual center at Cruachain Ai, near Rathcroghan between Belanagare and Elphin, in the County Roscommon. According to tradition, the Firbolg tribes ruled much of Connacht down to the third century. TYRONE was inhabited by the Scoti, which tribe extended itself over most of the inland regions; though some writers place the Erdini of Oriel here, as well as in the neighboring maritime county of Donegal. It was afterwards known as the district or kingdom of Cineal Eoghain, Ross / O'Beolains frequently called Tyr-Oen or Tir-Owen, whence its present name of Tyrone is derived. LEITRIM, 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. Leitrim, together with that of Cavan and part of Fermanaghm afterwards formed the territory of Breifne. About the 5th century Enda of the Cenél Enda, the youngest son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, received territory in modern co. Donegal; a promontory (or Ross) in the barony of Kilmacrenan, co. Donegal. Erdini, designated in the Irish language Ernaigh, traces of which name are yet preserved in that of Loug Erne and the river Erne, upon which and their tributaries these discricts border.
By the ancient Irish it was called Feor Magh Eanagh, or "the Country of the Lakes," and Magh Uire, or "the Country of the Waters:" it was also called Ernai or Ernagh, and the inhabitants who lived around Logh Erne, Ernains and Erenochs. a name supposed to be derived from the Erdini. It was divided into two great portions, one called Targoll, the ancient seate of the Facmonii, and of the Macmanii, or the Mac Manuses; the other named Rosgoll, occupied by the Guarii or Guirii, from whom the Mac Guires, or Maguires, derive their origin. This family was so powerful that the greater part of the county was for several centuries known by the name of Mac Guires country. In County Fermanagh according to one story, the original 'Fir Manach' are claimed to come from Leinster, reaching the Upper Lough Erne at very early date. "At the coming of Christianity, Fermanagh was partly independent (i.e. original tribes), partly under the Oriel tribes and partly under Connaught influence." (Livingstone 1969, 6).
The Airghialla-Cian federation included Uí Cremthainn, Uí Méith, Uí Tuirtre, Uí Meic Uais, Uí Fiachra-Ard Sratha, Mughdorna, Uí Meic Cáirthinn, Airthir, Fernmhaighe, and Fir Lí, among other terms descriptive of tribal groupings and territories. In addition, other places where Arghialla groups have been noted included areas within the modern counties of Tyrone, Cavan, Meath, Westmeath, Louth, and Derry. Their territory, depending on timeframe, included much of what includes the modern counties of Monaghan, Armagh and Fermanagh. A steady push by the Cenél nEógain in the 7th and 8th centuries reduced the size of the Aighiallan 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. 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.
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 Laigin Ua Baigeallain (O Boylan) of Síl Maeluidir in the area of Dartraige (Darty, western co. Monaghan). In the 12th century Breifne, the Ua Cearbhaill (O'Carroll) of Clan Cian were prominent among the kings of Arghialla. By the 13th century the family of MacMahon (MacMathghamhna) held from Ulidia and Antrim, the superior authority with the title king of Oirghialla (Oriel), by that time a much reduced sub-kingdom. According to Ptolemy, this tract, CAVAN and Principal Ulster, with the districts included in the adjacent counties of Leitrim/Cavan and Fermanagh, was occupied by the Erdini. This district, exclusively of the greater part of the present county of Fermanagh, formed also the ancient principality of Breifne, which had recognized limits from time immemorial, and was divided into the two principalities of Upper or East Breifne and Lower or West Breifne, the former composed almost entirely of the present county of Cavan, and the latter that of Leitrim. SLIGO county was included in the territory of the Nagnata in the time of Ptolemy, the chief city of which tribe, Nagnata, is supposed by some to have been somewhere near the site of the town of Sligo. It was afterwards possessed by a branch of the O'Conors, called for the sake of distinction O'Conor Sligo. The Dalriada and Mayo-Sligo families of O'Hara, O'Dowd, Mac Donagh, and Mac Ferbis, were also heads of septs in different districts. After the landing of the English under Henry II, it gradually fell, together with the rest of Ulster-Connaught, into the hands of the great English leaders, of whom the Burghs or De Burgos of Derry were the most powerful in these parts. Both Sligo county and Breifne was regarded as part of Connaught which, with the exception of Roscommon, was then considered by the English as a single county, until the 11th of Elizabeth, when the province was divided into seven counties, of which Sligo was made one.
In Co Fermanagh, where the name Monaghan is numerous, the Fir Manach family are thought to be part of the original inhabitants of the area, the Fir Manach, from whom the county gets its name.Their base was in the district of Lurg. From here the Monaghan name migrated into the adjoining counties of Monaghan and Derry. The following were the Chiefs and Clans of Fermanagh, and the territories they possessed in the twelfth century. Throughout the 11th and 12th centuries the Kings of Fermanagh - O'hEignigh, O'Maolruanaidh and O'Dubhdara - were drawn from the Airghialla [Oriel], its Clann Lugainn branch, which is stated in the early genealogies to descend from one of the three Collas, i.e. Colla Fochríth of the Cenel Moain. The O'Heany or Hegney (Ó hEignigh) and Mulrooney (Maolruanaidh) septs were noted as kings of Fermanagh (Fer Manach) in Roscommon-Galway until becoming tributary to the Maguires (Meicc h-Uidir) by the 13th century. An early genealogy
1281 Annals of Ulster The battle of Disert-da-crich of Leinster was fought between Cenel-Conaill and Cenel-Eoghain of Uladh, where fell Domnall Ua Domnaill of Breifne-Ross (by Aedh Ua Neill the Tawny and by Mac Martain of the Conmacines); namely, the man to whom were subject Fir-Manach and Ulidia, save a litle and all Fir-Breifne.
Fernmag, located in southeast Co. Monaghan. The O'Carrolls are cited as overlords of Oriel in this area. O'Lorcan (Larkin) are cited in the annals as early chiefs of Fernmhaighe (Farney). O'Kieran (Ó Ciaráin) of Kilkenny is given as a chief of Fearnmuigh by the writer O'Dugan as a clan of Tir Eoghan. [Cork, Monaghan, Tyrone.] O'Creehan (O'Criochan) appear in the annals as chiefs. MacMahon (MacMathghamhna) were noted as chiefs here in the 13th century. Bréifne was held by the clans of the Uí Briúin Breifne, descendants of Aodh Fionn, from the 7th century up to the mid 17th century. At its maximum extent Bréifne extended from Kells in Meath to Drumcliff in Co. Sligo and was part of the Kingdom of Connacht until the time of Queen Elizabeth I (1565), when it was split into the Counties Cavan and Leitrim. Ulster had its ancient capital at Emain Macha, near the modern city of Armagh Oriel, or Oirghialla, center to Ard Macha 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