The Laigin, or Dumnonii, were the third ethno-tribal group to come to Ireland, coming from Gaul shortly before the Gaels themselves, sometime during the first century B.C. Branches of the Dumnonii settled first in the Devon-Cornwall area before others moved on to Ireland. The Laigainian colonization is believed to have taken place sometime about 300 B.C. The ancient Laigin or Dumnonii group moved from the western region of Normandy and Lyoness as the Roman built up pressure on Gaul about 100 B.C. About 56 BC, during the Roman invasion of Gaul, the area of Somerset to Glastonbury was occupied by refugees from Armorica. In southern Britain their kingdom gave its name to Devon (Dumnonia).
In the time of King Arthur (ca. A.D. 500), as the tribe most closely associated with that great Pendragon, these Devon Domnonii established a dual kingdom which included the north coast of Brittany (Domnonie), from whose royal house eventually sprang the House of Stewart (which house inherited the crown of the Scots in 1371 and that of England in 1603).
In Ireland the Dumnonii were generally known as the Laigin, and originally became overlords in the southeastern and central regions, and in Connacht. From there they later spread to other parts of Gaeldom. The North Gaels divided into two great branches in the mid-fifth century A.D.: the Connachta and the Uí Neill. Tribes outside the 750 A.D. Laigen territorial boundary (and within the boundary of modern Leinster province) included the powerful Southern Uí Néill septs .
The Éle of the Fens-an area of former wetlands by the Great Ouse itself to Ely ... Or the Ely in southern Offaly extended further south into Co. Tipperary and was considered part of Munster (Urmuma or Ormond).
The Uí Maine were the great Laiginian tribe whose original territory comprised adjoining parts of what are now the counties of Galway, Roscommon, Clare and OfaIly. The Uí Maine and the Uí Chrumthainn were closely related to the Oirghialla, for their ancestors were the same as those of the Oirghialla, being the ancient Laiginian allies of the great tribe of the North Gaels (the names of three of their respective original sub-tribal groups duplicate each other- the Cann Bhreasail. or Uí Breasail (Macha); the Uí Fiachrach Finn, or Uí Fiachrach Arda Stratha, and the Clann Chearnaigh. The Uí Maine separated from the Oirghialla at the same time that the Uí Neill differentiated from their North-Gaelic kinsmen, the Connachta. As the Cenél Tir-Conaill of the Uí Neill and their Oirghialla allies moved eastward to Donegal and into the rest of Ulster, the Connachta moved southwards into Tara and the rest of Connacht, and thus did their Laiginian allies, the Uí Maine, acquire what would become their tribal patrimony.
The Cenel Tir-Conaill in Scotland were known as the Kindred of Saint Columba, the great saint who founded Hy and Iona.
The Oirghialla helped the Cenél nEoghain of the Uí Neill effect the conquest of most of North Ireland from the Ulster Érainn, of Argyll and Dalriada and later they settled a vast territory there including the counties of Louth, Armagh, Monaghan and Fermanagh, a territory which is called after them, Oriel... So important were they in the Uí Neill political sphere that they were given an honorary traditional descent from the great-grandfather of Nial of the Nine Hostages, ancestor of the O’NeilIs of the line of Conn. Their representatives in the later Middle Ages include the MacBradys, O’Boylans, O’Flanagans, O’Mulroonys or Moroneys, Maguires, MacKernans, MacAuleys, O’Cassidys, O’Corrigans, MacManuses, MacMahons, MacCanns, O’Hanraghtys, O’Hanlons, O’Lynns, MacEvoys, MacDonalds, MacDonells, MacAlisters, Maclans, MacSheehys, Maclntyres, MacDougals, and Conns.
The Cineal nAlbanaich were a branch of the Oirghialla that settled in the northwest Highlands and Islands in very early times. Their chief clans descend from Godfraidh Mac Ferghusa (i.e., "Fergus"), a prince of the Oirghialla in North Ireland who came to Scotland, or Albany, in the ninth century as an ally of Kenneth MacAlpin, first king of the united kingdom of Picts and Scots (Dingwall). The Cenél nAlbanaich settled north of Argyle in the Hebrides, in the area of Skye, where they acquired Pictish and later Worse connections in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, west of Mull. The chief clans which branched from the Cenél nAlbanaich are the Clann Dhomhnuill (Clan Donald) and the Clann Dubhghaill (Clan Dougal).
The Clann Dhomhnuill or MacDonalds (Mac Dhomhnuill) descend from Dhomnuill, or Donald, son of Reginald (or Ranald) mac Somerled, King of the Isles and Lord of Argyle and Kintyre (1164—1207). Ranald’s mother was the daughter of Olav, Norse King of Man and the Isles. It was from her that he derived his titles in the Isles, his paternal grandfather Somerled being already Lord of Argyle (the Lordship of the Isles was under the control of the King of Norway until 1266).
The Clann Dhomhnuill includes the families of MacDonald of Clan Donald and Islay, the MacDonells of Keppoch and MacDonnells of Antrim, the MacIans, MacAlisters, MacSheehys, and the Clan Ranald. The Cenél n-Óengusa, in Islay and Jura, supposedly the descendants of Óengus Mór mac Eirc. A loch in the northwest of Islay, in the Inner Hebrides, Loch Gorm lies 12½ miles (20 km) east of Port Askaig, in flat land towards the north of the Rhinns of Islay. Although the Inner Hebrides, from 1156 known as the Kingdom of the Hebrides, still nominally was under the sovereignty of Norway. The Outer Hebrides would remain under the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles while the Inner Hebrides broke out under Somerled.
The MacDonalds of Clan Donald, or Clann Uistein, the chief family of the clan (now represented by MacDonald of MacDonald, and his cadet, MacDonald of Sleat, both of Gaelic Skye), were the leaders of the most powerful tribal organization in Scotland, and were long vested in the Lordship of the Isles (the last Lord of the Isles died in 1503, the title being taken over by a House of Stewart). They descend from Donald, son of John, first Lord of the Isles (from 1354) and his second wife, a daughter of Robert II of the House of Stewart. From Raasay, to the East is the Scottish mainland and to the West is The Isle of Skye. The Norse name "Raasay" means Isle of the (Roe) or Red Deer. The monastery west from Donegal of St.Crona possessed its own landed property and over the course of time these became known as termon or erenagh lands. The chief houses in Scotland were at St Andrews, Scone, Dunkeld, Lochleven, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, Abernethy and Brechin. In Ireland the Culdee of Armagh endured until the dissolution in 1541.
The MacDonalds of Islay and MacDonnells of the Glens of Antrim, the Clan Ian Vor, descend from lain Mor, or "Big John" the Tanist, a younger full brother of Donald, second lord of the Isles who married the MacEoin or Bissett heiress of Antrim about 1400, thus inheriting lands in Antrim, which were settled by them in ernest during the first part of the sixteenth century. The Clan Ranald of Lochaber, or MacDonells of Keppoch, (between Loch Lochy and Loch Spean in Lochaber, or southern inverness-shire) descend from Alasdair, another younger full brother of Donald.
The Conns, an old Aberdeenshire family, traditionally descend from William Con, son of Donald of the Isles, chief of Clan Donald in the first part of the sixteenth century. They took the name of Conn from the traditional ancestor of the Clan Donald (Oirghialla) and (Fir Rois, Ros). The Conns appear under the appellation "of Auchry" before 1539, and appear in the district from 1522. They were a prominent Roman Catholic family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but were driven into exile soon after 1642 (George Con was the Pope’s agent at the court of the Queen of Charles I).
The MacDonalds of Clanranald, captains of the great Clan Ranald "proper," descend from Ranald, son of John, first Lord of the Isles and his first wife, the heiress of the MacRuaris of Uist Isle and Garmoran, the mainland district between Skye and Argyle (from Loch Hourn to Loch Sunart), both of which they inherited (the MacRuaris descended from another son of Reginald mac Somerled). Their younger branch, the MacDonells of Glengarry (just east of Garmoran) descend from Donald, himself the son of Ranald, ancestor of the Clan Ranald.
The Clann an tSaoir, or Maclntyres (Mac an tSaoir) are also a branch of the Clan Ranald. They settled in Loin, or North Argyle, sometime during the fourteenth century, having come from the Hebrides in a galley "with a white cow," to settle in Glen Oe (or Noe) just south of Loch Etive. There they were hereditary foresters to the Stewart lords of Lorn. Almost all the MacAteers are in Ulster (Armagh, Antrim and Donegal), while the MacIntyres are less concentrated in that area, with a considerable number in Co. Sligo. The bishop of Clogher of Monaghan who held the sea from 1268-1287 was Archdeacon Michael Mac An tSaoir, Saint Tigernach, and the famous St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois, who flourished seven centuries earlier, was called Mac an tSaoir and lived at Lough Erne in North Ireland (County Fermanagh) SE of the city of Donegal, Lough Rie into and out of which the River Shannon which runs to the south to Clanmacnois. St. Ciaran is often called St. Kieran the Younger to distinguish him from the founder of the Diocese of Ossory: St. Kieran of Saighir. A branch settled in Badenoch under MacKintosh protection in the fifteenth century, and became members of the Clan Chattan Confederacy.
The Clan Chattan (Clann Chatain) was a confederation of clans in the Moray areas of Lochaber, Strathnairn and Badenoch. These included the MacGillivrays, Maclntyres, MacLeans, MacQueens, MacAndrews, and others. The Cenél Loairn derive their descent from Loam, son of Erc, a king of Dal Riada in the fifth century. They originally inhabited the present districts of Loin (named for them) and Mull, with the adjacent mainland and island territory to the north and west. This area (Ros), which became the Scottish part of the greater tribal kingdom of Dal Riada, was separated from the rest of Scotland by mountains. The Cenél nGabrain of Dalriada originally dwelt south of the Cenél Loairn in the island districts of Jura, Bute, and Arran, and the mainland districts of Cowal and Kintyre.
The Clann Dubhghaill or MacDougals (Mac Dubhghaill) descend from Dubhghaill, King of the Hebrides and Lord of Lorn (North Argyle) who was the son of the great Somerled and brother of Reginald (or Ranald), ancestor of the Clann Dhomnuill, or MacDonalds. Lorn was held by Dubhghaill under the Scottish crown, while the Hebridian islands under his control were held of the King of Norway. Dunollie Castle in Oban Bay was the principal stronghold of the MacDougal chiefs, whose power declined after their defeat at the hands of King Robert I the Bruce in the Pass of Brander in 1309. The MacDougals were related by marriage to the Bruce’s rivals, the Cummins and Balliols, and thus backed them during the period leading up to the battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
As a result, the MacDougals were forfeited and lost their vast island territories, also Rushen, although they were later restored to the mainland Lordship of Lorn by King David II (after their seventh chief married a granddaughter of Robert I). Eventually the MacDougalls lost the lordship of Lorn, which (like many other old Scottish Dignities) passed almost inevitably to the covetous House of Stewart. The family further suffered as a result of their support for the Jacobite cause during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nevertheless, based upon their proverbial connection with Lorn, the family has ever been known, both officially and informally, as the MacDougalls of Lorn.
The MacSheehys (Mac Sithigh) descend from Sitheach, great-grandson of the same Donald. They were a famous gallowglass family (galowglasses were heavily armed foot-soldiers) employed as hired bodyguards by various tribal kings in Ireland, as per Gaelic aristocratic custom. They are first mentioned in the Annals in 1367, having taken part in a battle that yeare between two factions of the Royal O’Connors of Uí Briuin in Connacht. In 1420 they settled County Limerick as constables to the Earl of Desmond, and built their castle of Lisnacolla, or Woodfort, located in the parish of Clonagh, about four miles west of Rathkeale in north-central Limerick.
The Maclans (Mac lain), or MacDonalds of Glencoe (just east of Appin in the north of Argyle), also known as the Clan Ian Abrach, descend from John Og, son of Angus Og, Chief of Clan Donald in the time of Robert the Bruce (early fourteenth century). The Maclans (MacDonalds) or Clan Ian of Ardnamurchan (the peninsula just west of Garmoran) descend from Angus MacIan, one of the relations of John, first Lord of the Isles, who was granted Ardnamurchan by King David II. The Clan Alister, or MacAlisters (Mac Alasdair) of the Loup in Kintyre descend from Alasdair, or Alexander, younger son of Donald mac Reginald mac Somerled, King of the Isles and eponymus ancestor, or name-founder, of the Clan Donald.