Four Courts Press – Dr Darren McGettigan ~ Historian and Author

May 28, 2020May 28, 2020

Spanish archaeologists dig for Red Hugh O’Donnell in Valladolid

With the launch and promotion of my new book postponed for the time-being due to the Covid 19 emergency, last Friday began for me with the welcome news that Spanish archaeologists have begun a dig in the city of Valladolid which they state has a very good chance of finding the long-lost remains of Red Hugh O’Donnell. Red Hugh’s career formed the basis of my PhD thesis way back in the early 2000s and this research allowed me to write my first book, Red Hugh O’Donnell and the Nine Years War, which was published in 2005. (It does not seem like 15 years ago!) Enthusiasts have been looking for Red Hugh’s grave for many years. The difficulty has been that the Franciscan monastery, which apparently was large and impressive, where O’Donnell was buried in the chapter area, was torn down during the nineteenth century and the entire area redeveloped. I myself remember meeting one of the enthusiasts many years ago in Dublin who was armed with impressive maps of the utilities in the streets where the monastery used to be. Unfortunately I could not assist with the search as I personally was in favour of leaving Red Hugh undisturbed where he was. This was just how I felt about it and we are all entitled to our personal opinions. I also feared that the friars may have removed Red Hugh’s skeletal remains to the municipal ossuary a few years after his death in 1602. This practice continued until surprisingly recent times in many European countries. However, photos already released by the dig archaeologists suggest that skeletal remains in the chapter were left in place.

Now that the dig is on it is actually quite exciting and I wish the Spanish archaeologists well. The search for Red Hugh appears to be much like the finding of Richard III in Leicester, who had also been buried in a prestigious abbey that had vanished long ago. I am not sure if new information about the location of Red Hugh O’Donnell’s grave emerged recently, but possibly a ground-plan of the old monastery was found. From photos uploaded online the dig looks like it is taking place in one of the small streets just off the Plaza Mayor in the city. The archaeologists have stated that they have discovered the chapter area of the old monastery where Red Hugh was buried which they are calling the Chapel of Marvels. Skeletal remains and two wooden coffins have already been uncovered and the archaeologists state that they are confident that Red Hugh’s grave will be located and his remains identified. May they enjoy every success!

May 1, 2020May 28, 2020

Book-launch hopefully in 2021

It all seems very long ago now that my new book was published in February 2020 and I began to make tentative plans for a book-launch in the late spring. It is clear now that hoping to organise a book-launch for any time in the for-see-able future is not realistic. So I am hoping now that all going well The Kings of Aileach and the Vikings will be launched, hopefully somewhere in Inishowen in April 2021. This will be exactly 1 year later than envisaged, but considering all that is going on all around the world, a very small price to pay. Thankfully family and friends are safe so far from Covid 19 and all medical front-line staff have my greatest appreciation for their bravery and self-sacrifice. So too do the staff in my local supermarkets, the postmen still delivery our mail and the many other service providers who are still working and who we probably don’t even know about. Compared to this a delayed book-launch is no inconvenience at all.

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020

New Book just published January 2020

Hello Everyone. I would like to use this blog to announce the publication of my new book The Kings of Aileach and the Vikings, AD 800-1060. The book is published by Four Courts Press and is available on their website for €22.45 (Normal retail price €24.95). The book tells two intertwined historical stories – the early medieval history of the Cenél nEógain population group – and Viking activity in the north of Ireland. The book grew out of a lot of background research into the Cenél nEógain people, my own family history since the McGettigans were a branch of the Cenél nEógain in early medieval times, and the history of Viking interaction with Ireland, particularly in the early Viking Age before the time of the great Irish high-king Brian Boru (d.1014). I learnt a great deal of new information while writing this book, in particular about some wonderful discoveries of Viking material dredged by archaeologists from Northern Ireland from the bed of the River Blackwater. I also very much enjoyed learning in detail for the first time about many of the Cenél nEógain kings, who were a remarkably talented group of people. I hope readers enjoy the resulting book accompanied as it is by sets of maps, genealogies and 16 pages of colour illustrations. Here is the link to my book on the Four Courts Press website.

November 26, 2019December 8, 2019

Surnames of the Cenél nEógain

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).

November 10, 2019December 8, 2019

New Book Early 2020

It is with great pleasure that I would like to announce the publication of the last installment in my trilogy of books about the history of medieval Ireland, The Kings of Aileach and the Vikings, AD 800-1060. Published by Four Courts Press (with whom I have a very good relationship by this stage), my new book is due to be published in very early 2020. This book is primarily concerned with Viking activity in the north of Ireland and their interaction with my ancestors, the Cenél nEógain population group of the Inishowen Peninsula and Central Ulster. My new book should appeal to students and teachers of early medieval Irish history and also to local historians across a wide stretch of the north of Ireland. My book deals extensively with the local history of the Inishowen Peninsula and adjacent areas in Co. Donegal and also with almost the entire area of the modern counties of Derry and Tyrone that were inhabited by the Cenél nEógain people in early medieval times. Also covered are Co.s Antrim, Down and Louth, the land of the Ulaid people during this time. All these areas had a definite regional dynamic throughout the Viking Age. So please keep an eye out for the new book in the shops from early in the new year. I will post another blog when I receive my first copy which is always an enjoyable time for an author.