Gleaning from Ulster History

Seamus O Ceallaigh 1952

The Pedigree of O Neill and MacLochlainn



"Though the problem is hardly contemporaneous with the matter under discussion, it may be of interest to point out that the descent put forward on their own behalf by the family of O Neill in An Leabhar Eoghanach and in the official pedigrees is at least open to suspicion. In the first place, L.E. explains how each successive O Neill was killed off by the current MacLochlainn. In the second place, it does not concede that any MacLochlainn, during the period of O Neill's eclipse, was ever lord of Ailech. He was simply MacLochlainn, and Domnall an tOgdhamh and successive O Neills were kings of Ulster for five, three, then, seven and five years, until the reign of Aodh an Macaomh Toinleasg, who was fifty years in the lordship ("caoga bliadhan gan bhearnadh"). We know from the annals that he was ruler of Teloch Og only from 1176 to 1177, so that these entries in L.E. cannot be taken as impartial history. The record is that the MacLochlainns participated in at least seven regnal changes from the time of the great Domhnall to 1176 and in seven more from the death of Aodh to the end of MacLochlainn in 1247. Thirdly, unlike the entries before and after the period 1033-1160, the seemingly reconstructed chronicle here is bone-dry; no exploits, no battles. Fourthly, between the death of Flaithbheartach an Trostain (1036) and that of Niall MacLochlainn (ob. 1176) or of this Aodh O Neill (1177), who was his rival, there are two generations extra ( = 60 years normally) in the O Neill lineage, in that space of a century and a half. This might be explained away by those prescriptive killings by MacLochlainn or it might be that some of these O Neills mentioned stood to each other in the relation of brother and brother instead of that of father and son. This is all very disconcerting at so late a date of our attested genealogical system. But there is worse to follow. This Aodh o Neill was the first descendant of Flaithbheartach an Trostain to break in (1176) on the hegemony of the MacLochlainns. The death of his father, Muircheartach Muighe Line, is recorded in the annals at 1160. Of the four persons carrying the family back to Flaithbheartach's son, Aedh Allan, not one, as far as I can see, is mentioned in the annals. Not even their obits are recorded. This fact in itself would arouse misgivings. For six generations in sequence the family depends upon a single individual to maintain the succession; no brothers or uncles are mentioned, and L.E. expressly states that Aodh was the last of his race. Now it was altogether exceptional for these ruling families to be reduced in the regnal succession to single heirs. This is evident where MSS. are forthcoming which catered for local records. For example, the O'Donnell Genealogies (Pol Breathnach, Anal. Hib., No. viii), when schematized, show many individuals with quite a mulititude of sons, and MS. No. 11, king's Inns, Dublin, dealing with the progeny of Brian Ballach of Clann Aodha Buidhe, in three cases in which the general pedigrees are carried down through a single heir, enumerates 12 sons from his son Muircheartach Ruadh, so long ruler of Clann Aodha Buidhe; 11 such from his son Eamonn, and from Niall Gallda of Coill Ultach 18! Following the ordinary law in the community, there must have been as m any daughters as sons. If this achievement provokes any sense of mystery, I leave the probing of it to the student of genetics or to those curious about the trend of the social proprieties, but obviously this factor was turned into a source of strength in war and administration. It is conceivable that the O Neill lineage may have been spun out to a single filament in 1160, but the manner in which the facts are presented to us is not convincing.

There is more relish in the story told in L.E. as to how Aodh got his nick-name. His father (killed by MacLochlainn in 1160) was called of Magh Line. The father was married to the daughter of O Floinn Line, ruler of Ui Thuirtre, which, by now, was on the eastern side of the Bann, and extended from Tuaim towards Carraic Fearghuis. This is where Magh Line and Rath Line were. The child Aodh was born after his father's death. MacLochlainn came questing afterwards to O Floinnn's house, and met the boy, who did not show due respect to the visitor by leaving his chair. "Is toinl easg an macaomh," said MacLochlainn - "Oh! thou tardy to arise" (but perhaps, as was common, he got the name, by antiphrasis, by reason of his sense of dash and despatch). Howbeit, O Floinn secreted his grandson and saved him, and (following L.E.) the latter can only have been 16 years of age when he broke down the MacLochlainn jurisdiction and established possibilities for his own family. This could all be accepted as aplausible explanation of how O Neill regained power. It raises the possibility of a recognition of mutual interests between O Neill and O Floinn. It might have been of long standing, but in spite of the wealth of references to Ui Thuirtre in the annals, there a few problems on which they throw less light than on the relations of that family with Cineal Eogain. The Magh Line of Muircheartach's designation is spelt Magh Lughan by L.E. - with confusing results, for there was a district in the older Ui Thuirtre, west of the Bann, called Magh Lughad. Muircheartach's father was Tadhg Glinne, but the "Gleann" is not specified, so the appelation is of no service to us. His father again was Conchobhar na Fiodhbhuidhe (B.B. says C. na Fida) and although there were many places of that name, one of them being near the Omaigh, the place meant was probably the well-known territory east of the Bann, at Tuaim and lying in the new Ui Thuirtre. It is still called the Feevagh. Finally, the father of this Conchobhar was Flaithbheartach Locha Feadha (L.E.). Other authorities say he was of Loch Rii, Loch Adhar (B.B.) or Loch Ahdain. These places are hardly identifiable now, but if Loch Feadha is right, it is Loch Fea, in Farachta or Arachtra (vide Index L.C.B.) some six miles north of Cora Criche or Cookstown. We are here back again the the older pre-transmigration Ui Thuirtre. At the period of restoration could O Neill have been occupying some territory of O Floinn's or could O Floinn have been acting as his overlord in some sense? But at this stage the argument becomes to tenuous for practical discussion.