of the O‘Flahertys, the Clann
Choscraigh, included the families of MacGarry (Mag Fhearadhaigh) and also the MacHughs
(MacAodha). The MacGarrys or Garrihys were seated at Moygarry in County Sligo as late as
1585. The name spread into Roscommon and Leitrim as well, and in some cases became
O’Garriga (O Gearaga or O Giorraighe), and was mistranslated from this form into
English as Hare. The MacHughs were seated in the old O'Flaherty territory in the barony of
Clare, County Galway.
Another branch of the Ui Briuin Seola, of
which the O'Lees (O Laoidigh) were chiefs, also settled in western Connacht. The O'Lees
were erenaghs, or hereditary abbots, of Annaghdown, and produced a number of distinguished
ecclesiastics. They are better known as a medical family, and were for many centuries
hereditary physicians to the O‘Flahertys, and sometimes to the Royal O'Conners as
well. As early as the fifteenth century the family had produced a complete course in
medicine, written in Latin and Gaelic. They were widely disbursed towards the end of the
sixteenth century, and in north Connacht used the form MacLee.
The Ui Briuin Breifne carved out a territory
for themselves between Lough Allan and the river Erne in central Fermanagh in the late
eighth century. They expanded east of the Shannon and into the wastelands of Cavan in the
ninth and tenth centuries, and afterwards played an everincreasing role in the politics of
the midlands. Their chief families were the O'Rourkes (O Ruairc), kings of West Breffny
(County Leitrim), and the Muintear Mhaolmordha or O’Reillys (O RaighailIigh), lords
of East Breffny (County Cavan). The O'Rourkes were, prior to the twelfth-century
Anglo-Norman invasion, overlords of the Ui Briuin Breifne in Leitrim and Cavan, and ruled
over a territory which at its widest extent stretched all the way from Drumcliff in Sligo
to Kells in Meath. Three of their chiefs, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, were kings
of Connacht as well. After the Anglo-Norman invasion, their cousins the O’Reillys
became lords of East Breffny, which became known as Breffny O’Reilly, while the
O'Rourkes were lords of West Breffny, thenceforward known as "Breffny
O’Rourke." The O’Rourke kings took a leading part in the wars against
Elizaheth I in the late sixteenth century, from which wars they suffered severely. They
did, however, retain considerable property down to the Cromwellian confiscations of the
mid-seventeenth century, after which many of them rose to distinction in the military
service of continental powers, especially Poland and Russia.
The Teallach Dhunchadha (Household of
Dunchadh) or MacTernans (Mac Tighearain), also known as Tierans or MacKierans (Mac
Thighearnain) descend from Dunchadh, eighth-century ancestor of the O’Rourkes. Their
clan name was given to their territory, now the Barony of Tullyhunco in the west of County
Cavan. The Teallach Eachach or MacGoverns (Mag Shamhradhain, also known as Magaurans,
descend from Eochaidh, son of Maonach (Maonach was a brother of the Dunchadh mentioned
above). The patrimony of the
Note received from
Hugh McKiernan
You may like to correct a small error in
the last paragraph regarding Dunchadha. He wasn't an ancestor of the Ruarc -
a quo O'Rourke - but of the teallach Dunnchadha or Mac Thighearnain line.
One must go back another few generations to find a common ancestor - Feargna,
son of Fergus. Feargna's two sons , Breanainn and Aodh Fionn begat Dunchadha
and Ruarc respectively, Dunchadha having lived and died several generations
before Ruarc.. The (unaspirated) Mac Tighearnain were the even more distant
Clann Fergaile closely related to Maguire (Fergal a quo clann Fergaile was
the king of Fermanagh) and a third sept, also Mac Tighearnain were descended
from Tigearnan O'Connor great grandson of Turlough Mór, the high king of
Ireland. |
