My new book The Kings of Aileach and the Vikings, AD 800-1060 is due to be published by Four Courts Press in January 2020. While the main theme is Viking activity in the north of the island of Ireland, the Cenél nEógain dynasty, the dominant Irish population group in this region, is another. Many of the Cenél nEógain kings became high-kings of Ireland during the ninth and tenth centuries. A major discovery of my research was that the Cenél nEógain also had kings that were powerful at a local level, who administered the Cenél nEógain kingdom while their most able dynasts were either pursuing the business of the high-kingship or were striving hard to inherit this prestigious title. Claimants to the high-kingship were known as rígdamnae Érenn (one eligible to become high-king), while the local rulers usually bore the title king of Aileach. However, there were no hard and fast rules and a high-king of Ireland or one of the rígdamnae Érenn could also be king of Aileach. There were only two kingship rules among the early medieval Cenél nEógain. These appear to have been ‘once a king always a king’, and ‘succession of the collaterals’ – cousins often succeeded each other as kings of Aileach with sons rarely succeeding fathers. However, an able son of a prominent Cenél nEógain king usually got to the chance to become king himself, but only after the intervening reigns of one or two cousins.
An important part of my new book is also a study of the many branches and families that by the twelfth century went to make up the wider Cenél nEógain dynasty. Strictly speaking this aspect of the history of the Cenél nEógain came after the Viking Age was mostly over in medieval Ireland. However, I found that once surnames began to be used among the Cenél nEógain, which began during the tenth century (very early by Irish standards), that this helped to make much more sense of the geographical distribution of the branches of the dynasty and also of the lists of Cenél nEógain kings. In particular I took an interest in the families that made up the western Cenél nEógain during this period, located in the modern areas of Inishowen and the extreme east of Co. Donegal and also west Co. Derry and the very west of Co. Tyrone. The Cenél nEógain families of these areas went into decline during the thirteenth century and were largely forgotten in the history of late medieval and early modern Tyrone. Attached below is a piece that did not make it into my book about the O’Laverty family of west Tyrone. A prominent branch of the Cenél nEógain who provided kings of Aileach during the ninth century, the family experienced a resurgence of power and influence during the 1100 and 1200s. Then for some now unknown reason the power of the O’Laverty family collapsed and they became a minor family living in the Ardstraw region but no longer recorded in the Irish annals. The unused piece from my book contains my research into the origins of this family and also illustrates how complicated the genealogical history of the Cenél nEógain population group can be.
I hope readers will appreciate and understand the portions of this book that deal with the family divisions and surname development among the Cenél nEógain. Some of this material is from the twelfth century and does not strictly concern the Viking-Age in the north of Ireland. However, this book would not have been written but for my research into the medieval branches of the Cenél nEogain. It was my early research into the history of my own MacEiteagáin (McGettigan) family that sparked my interest in the Cenél nEógain in medieval times. Charlie Doherty in UCD suggested that I read Seamus Ó Ceallaigh’s Gleanings from Ulster History, although it took me a long time to figure out what may have been happening in the complex genealogical world of the early medieval Cenel nEógain. Charlie’s UCD colleague Professor F.J. Byrne, once astutely wrote that only a well-trained genealogist could make any sense of the many branches that had proliferated among the Cenél nEógain dynasty. While I do not make any claim to be an expert genealogist, I do believe that by this stage my knowledge of the many branches and surnames of the Cenél nEógain is quite good. Just to take one prominent example, the Ua Flaithbertaig (O’Laverty) surname, probably the third most senior family among the Cenél nEógain. Based in west Tyrone near Clady and Ardstraw, this distinguished family appears to be descended from Flaithbertach, a king of Aileach who died c.896, who was descended from the Cenél nEógain High-King of Ireland, Áed Oirdnide (d.819). Some genealogical collections give an alternative origin for the Ua Flaithbertaig family, with the ancestor figure being Áed Allán, another High-King of Ireland from the Cenél nEógain dynasty, who died in 743 AD. However, this genealogy may be a forgery which may have been commissioned by Ruaidhri Ua Flaithbertaig, a later king of Tyrone in 1186-7. There are also references in the Irish annals to an Ua Flaithbertaig family, lords of the Clann Domhnall branch of the Cenél nEógain (the descendants of Domnall Dabaill, d.915). This family may be descended from Flaithbertach (d.919) son of Domnall Dabaill, via his famous grandson Murchad Glúnillar (Eagle-knee), a king of Aileach who died in 974. However, it is just as likely that the Ua Flaithbertaig lords of Clann Domhnall were from the first family here discussed, who were located geographically close-by. Clann Domhnall may have become a territorial designation (Urney and Inchenny) in west Tyrone by the twelfth-century. There could have been three separate Ua Flaithbertaig families among the medieval Cenél nEógain, all of whom may have had distinguished ancestry. After my research I believe there was probably only one. To illustatrate how confusing the genealogical world of the early medieval Cenél nEógain can be the Clann Flaithbertaig branch of the dynasty were also located in the same area of the Cenél nEógain kingdom. However, they were a branch of the Clann Conchobair, descended from Flaithbertach, one of the many sons of Conchobar, an important ancestor figure among the Cenél nEógain who flourished in the mid-eighth century. The most prominent surnames of this branch of the Cenél nEógain were Ua Dubhda (Duddy) and Ua Baoighill (O’Boyle).