Thomas M. Donahue* 

According to legend that has been propagated in books such as Keating's History of Ireland, the wish of Ollid Olium was that the kingship of Munster go to the Eóghanachta and Dalcassian families in alternation. In fact, modern historians can find no historical basis for the genealogies that trace the descent of the principal Gaelic families to Miledh and his sons. In the case of Eóghanachta, even Eóghan Mór himself appears to have been legendary. The first king of Munster for whom documentation exists is Corc, who lived during the late fourth and early fifth centuries. (According to the genealogists, Corc was the great-great grandson of Eóghan.) There almost surely was an ancestor of Corc whose name was Eóghan. Otherwise, it is hard to explain how a whole dynasty would bear his name. There is, however, no documentation for him. It necessarily follows that there is no basis in historical records for the existence of Eóghanachta. The Dalcassians were one of the Desi septs of Munster, originally a people of minor importance who developed into a strong force in the tenth century. After their leaders, Mahon and Brian, established their ascendancy in Munster, their genealogists found a way to insert their legend into the legends.In fact, the Eóghanachta monopolized the title of King of Munster, exercising their power from the royal seat of Cashel, until a period of turmoil in the 10th century, occasioned by serious inroads of Norse invaders, culminated in the ascendancy of the Dalcassians under Brian Bóromha in 978 AD.

During the first millenium AD, one large collection of Eóghanachta Gaels had settled in West Cork where they eventually assumed the collective name of Uíbh Eochaidh . They were also known as the Eóghanachta Raithleann. Their original settlement appears to have been at Rath Rathleann (Garranes Fort) which is a couple of kilometers east of the Bandon -Crookstown road near Templemartin. (very close to Beal na Blath, where Michael Collins was ambushed and killed.) This branch of the Eóghanachta was originally headed by a son of Corc, Cas macCuirc, who lived during the middle years of the fifth century. The tribal name derived from Eochaidh, son of Cas. There were several Eóghanachta septs in addition to the Eóghanachta Raithleann. Most prominent were the Eóghanachta of Cashel from whom the McCarthys and Ó Sullivans descended. They occupied modern Tipperary around the royal seat of Cashel. The Eóghanachta Cashel and the Eóghanachta Rathleinn each had the right to have its king chosen King of Munster. (But, for some reason, the Raithleann kings were proscribed from living at Cashel if any of them should be selected King of Munster.) Eochaidh moved from somewhere in the present day Tipperary to what is now Cork sometime in the fifth century - probably between 450 - 475. He was, of course, the grandson of Corc, King of Munster. It appears that Corc imposed him on some forfeited tribes (Tuatha Dilsiu) in the South after Eochaidh's father, Cas, had squandered his inheritance. Corc took Eochaidh's lands as the price for making these arrangements. It is possible that the lands in question were then called Magh Femhin. Ó Heerin places the progenitors of the Ó Donoghues there. This was a territory that comprised roughly all of the present barony of Iffa and Offa East, just north of the Suir. It is interesting that Angus, another grandson of Corc, and King of Munster in the Eóghanacht of Cashel line, gave this territory to the Desi, who then lived in present day Waterford and South Tipperary and had grown numerous and powerful. The ancient Magh Femhin was then renamed Desi Tuaiskert. The territory of the Eóghanachta-Raithleann in West Cork, at apogee, extended roughly from the line Fermoy-Cork harbor, almost to Bantry and Mizen Head and was known as the Íbh Eochach . There are said to have been three royal residences in Íbh Eochach: Raithleann on the Bandon River, Dearg Rath, in the townland of Deragra, and Duncoba or Dunamanway. Their earliest settlement was probably Garranes Fort.

Eochaidh himself had a big family. His eldest son, named Criomhthann, had two sons who were named Áodh and Láoghaire (Hugh and Leary). These two divided the Uíbh Eochaidh into two septs, the Cinéal Áodh (Hugh's People) and the Cinéal Láoghaire (Leary's People). Many centuries later (in fact, five or six) the Cinéal Áodh assumed the family name of Ó Mahony and the Cinéal Láoghaire that of Ó Donoghue. During these 500 years or so, the two septs of Uíbh Eochaidh seem to have lived harmoniously in a close tribal alliance. . Initially, the Cineal Láoghaire lands (the Íbh Láoghaire, or Iveleary) apparently extended west from the dividing line Enniskeane-Crookstown-Donoghmore, to the neighborhood of Balingeary and Drimeoleague. Cineal Aodh lands lay to the east of the dividing line as far as Cork harbor and Fermoy (see the appended map). Although they were both eligible to provide a king to Munster, in fact they produced only one- Feidlimid mac Tighernach of the Cinéal Áodh- in the sixth century, until the days of the Dál gCassian ascendancy. At that time the Eóghanachta Raithleann assumed leadership of the Eóghachta in the struggle against the Dál gCas

In the 8th century, the tribe of Cineal Láoghaire increased its dominion southward and westward to Bantry, Schull, and Ballydehob, and northward to the Derrynasaggart Mountains (map). A portion of the Uíbh Láoghaire from Kinneigh to Dunmanway was called Coill t Sealbaig, and the tribe itself sometimes called Clann t Sealbaig. O Herrin describes the Ó Donoghues thus:

The Ó Donoghues of Lough Lein
And of the Flesg, who are full powerfull,
Rule over the Clan Selbhuidhe.
They are men of happiness in Munster.
Ó Donoghue of Lough Lein
He is a prosperous prince of the Eóghanacht.

At the time of the Battle of Clontarf, in 1014, the Cinéal Laoghaire were led by Domnal, son of the last Cinéal Láoghaire King of Munster, Dubhdábhoirean, and the Cinéal Aodh by a man named Cian. Both septs of the Uíbh Eochaidh, united under the leadership of Cian, were in the army of Brian Bóromha in the battle. In Brian's army marched the "children of Fiachaidh Maoil-lethan , with all the branching septs of tha stock -- a host both numerous and imposing," according to Keating. After Clontarf, where Brian was killed, the Dalcassians, under Brian's son, Donnchadh and the Uíbh Eochaidh septs marched westward together and camped at Mullaghmast in Kildare. There, Cian made a power move, demanding the return of clan hostages from Donnchadh, thus asserting his claim to the throne of Munster. However, Domnal, on behalf of Cinéal Láoghaire, refused to support Cian, after inquiring what reward, for himself and his sept, there would be from doing so, and being told that he would be lord of Uíbh Eochaidh. Domnal replied that he could be such in his own right, without the suffrance of Cian. In his turn, he asked for the return of Uíbh Láoghaire hostages from Cian. While the Uíbh Eochaidh were bickering, the weakened Dalcassians made a bold show of resistance and were able to go their way toward Thomond, unmolested. After the quarreling Eóghanachta Rathleann septs returned to Desmond, the matter between them came to a fight -- the first we know about between the two septs of Uíbh Eochaidh after 500 years of peaceful annals. A battle was fought at Magh Guildhe near the present town of Cappeen, about 8 miles northwest of Bandon. There Cian and his two brothers were slain. However, Cian was son-in-law to Brian Bóromha, and, when Domnal threatened Cian's son Mahon, his Dalcassian uncles intervened. This meant that the Cinéal Láoghaire were taking on the entire Dal gCais tribe along with their own Uíbh Eochaidh kin, and so ultimately, the matter went badly for them. After a series of battles, in the course of which Mahon and Domnal's eldest son, Cathal, were both killed, Domnal led the Cinéal Láoghaire against the Ó Brien- Ó Mahony allies at Limerick in 1015, and was not only decisively beaten, but lost his own life. His son Donnchadh, who succeeded, was the eponymous ancestor of the Ó Donnchadha These events left the Cinéal Láoghaire clan in a very delicate position, defeated as they were by their closest Eóghanacht cousins and the Dalcassians. In alliance. Not long afterward (1119), Turlough Mor Ó Connor, king of Connacht, took advantage of the strife in Munster to become Ard Righ. In 1121, after invading Munster, he split the power there between Donnchadh McCarthy, who was styled King of Desmond, and Concobar Ó Brien. These two gentlemen were brothers of the more legitimate and better known Eoghanacht and Dalcassian Leaders, Cormac McCarthy and Tordelbach Ó Brian, a grandson of Brian.

The McCarthys joined the Cinéal Áodh (Ó Mahonys), and were sustained by the Ó Briens in putting pressure on the Cinéal Láoghaire (Ó Donoghues) after the fiasco at Limerick. They were motivated by their expulsion from Cashel and East Cork by the Dal gCas. The result was that the Ó Donoghue sept was pushed out of the Ibh Láoghaire lands in West Cork, northward over the mountains, into Kerry, early in the 12th century, probably between 1120 and 1130. Those who moved away from Ibh Láoghaire were probably for the most part members of the dominant Ó Donoghue sept itself. Uíbh Láoghaire subordinate septs such as the Ó Healys, the Ó Flynns, the Ó Learys, the Coughlans and the Ó Mehigans mostly remained in West Cork. After arriving in what is now the barony of Maguinihy, around Lough Lein and north of the Derrynasagart mountains, our Ó Donnchadha ancestors established a foothold by extirparting the Ó Carrolls and Ó Cahills. Before the 17th century, when the English finally prevailed over some of them,this territory was known as the Eóghanacht Uí Dhonnchadha. Later in the 12th century, the Ó Donoghues put an end to Ó Moriarity power. By 1158, they were being led by Amhlaoimh Mór na Camsenach, who built the church at Aghadoe (north of the present town of Killarney.) This Auliffe ( or Olaf) Ó Donoghue had two sons, Cathal and Conor. The Ó Donoghues were divided by these two into two septs, the first with headquarters on Lough Lein, and the other in the Glen of the Flesk river. The chiefs of the two septs were known as Ó Donoghue of Lough Lein (also, variously, Ó Donoghue Mor and Ó Donoghue of Ross Castle) and Ó Donoghue of the Glen .

The relationship among Eóghanachta septs underwent a change after this displacement. The Eóghanachta Rathleann had lost its identity and its parity with the Eóghanachta Cashel. Instead, both Ó Donoghues and Ó Sullivans acknowledged the primacy of McCarthy Mór in Desmond (South Munster.) However, there was a ceremonial requirement that The Ó Donoghue and The Ó Sullivan sanction the succession of a McCarthy and jointly preside at the ceremony of investiture.

Ó Donoghue Mór, with 45 ploughlands, mostly north of Lough Lein, was obliged to supply McCarthy Mór with 12 horses and 200 kerne in time of war, while Ó Donoghue of the Glen, with 20 ploughlands along the Flesk, the Clydach and the Loo, owed him 2 Pounds, 64 per year.

The Ó Donoghues drove the Ó Connells out of Maguinihy to Iveragh in the late 12th century. From that time until the end of the 16th century, when the Ó Donoghue of Ross was attainted after the second Desmond rebellion, they held all but that corner of Magunihy which is south of the Lakes and along the shores of Muckross Lake, under their control.

After Strongbow, the Anglo-Norman, landed in Waterford, the Eóghanachta, under Diarmuid McCarthy, had to cope with Domnal Mór Ó Brien, as well as the likes of the Anglo-Normans Robert Fitz Stephen and Milo de Cogan, who formed an alliance of convenience against them. By 1178 Ó Brien had cleared his territory of such Eóghanacht septs as the Ó Sullivans of the Eóghanachta Cashel, who moved from Tipperary to Kerry and Cork on both sides of the Kenmare river. The last years of the 12th century were spent by the Eóghanachta clans, McCarthys, Ó Sullivans, Ó Donoghues and Ó Mahonys, in consolidating their holding in West Cork and South Kerry under the leadership of the McCarthys. During this same period, and afterward, the Anglo-Normans succeeded in establishing themselves in North Kerry and the Dingle Penninsula, but not in the territory of the Eóghanachta. A decisive battle was fought in Callan glen near Kilgarvan, on July 24, 1261, where the Gaelic forces under Fingen McCarthy (son of Domnail Gott, founder of the McCarthy Reigh) ambushed a Norman expeditionary force trying to penetrate Fingen's stronghold in the Cork Mountains. The result left the Eóghanachta lands in South Kerry and West Cork free of English intrusions for the next 300 years. The river Main formed the boundary between the Gaelic and Anglo-Norman dominions in Desmond during these times. The Geraldine Earls of Desmond prevailed north and west of the Main, and the Eóghanacht septs under the McCarthys south of it. There was an Ó Donoghue Castle at Molahiffe, just south of the Maine, about 3 miles east of Castlemaine.

In the 1570s began the revolt against Elizabeth of England, led by the 16th Earl of Desmond, Garrett Fitzgerald. Ó Donoghue of Ross and Ó Donoghue of the Glen were involved on one side or the other from time to time. Unfortunately, Ruadhri (Rory) Ó Donoghue of Ross was out with Desmond when the revolt was crushed by the Earl of Ormond in 1583. Ó Donoghue was killed, and his estates were attainted in 1586. Land and castles -- Molahiffe and Ross -- after being held for a while by the opportunistic McCarthy More, Earl of Clancarre, who had opposed Desmond, passed into the hands of the Brownes, Thomas and Nicholas, in 1596. This McCarthy Mór, a thoroughly despicable leader of his tribe, obtained the Ó Donoghue lands in return for his service to the crown, even though he had no right to them according to Gaelic land-tenure law, He promptly mortgaged them to the Brownes. The descendents of these Brownes, as Earls of Kenmare, held the property near Killarney until recent times.

The Ó Donoghues of the Glen maintained themselves in their wild glen and its surrounding hills even after the Cromwellian disaster in which Killaha castle was slighted by General Ludlow (1653). Although their lands were declared forfeit and they were given land in the Burren in Clare to replace those in the Glen they refused to leave. No undertaker dared to penetrate the slopes of Derrynasaggart, Crohane, and Killeen or the Cliffs of Foiladown until late in the 18th century. In 1678, for example, the clan leader was Geoffrey, the poet, whose parties in his house near the present church of St. Agatha in Glenflesk were famous. Later, the clan chief's house (Tigh Mór na Inse) was in the townland of Inch, very near the present Tim Crowley houses. The Glen became notorious in the early 18th century as a home of "Torries, robbers, and rapparees, persons of the Romish religion, out in arms and upon their keeping." The clan chiefs or ceann fine remained in Glenflesk throughout the century. The consequence is that, unlike most Gaelic septs great and small, this one can still identify its hereditary chief, although he no longer lives in the Glen of the Flesk. In the middle of the 19th century Daniel Ó Donoghue, MP from Tralee, after marrying Marie Sophie Ennis, moved to her family estate at Ballynahown Court near Athlone. The family lived there until recently when the present ceann fine, Geoffrey Paul Vincent Ó Donoghue of the Glen(s) and Prince of Eoghanacht Lochalein (b. 19 July, 1937) sold the estate. He and his family, 4 daughters, 3 sons and their families live not far from Ballynahown in Co. Ossory. The youngest son, Geoffrey Paul, has been designated tanaist.

Pronunciation: Eóghanachta (Ownakta)
Pronunciation: Eóghan Mór (Own More)
See Geneology, Appendix A
Pronunciation: tuatha (tueh = a people or tribe)
See Geneology, Appendix A
See Map, Appendix B
Uibh Eochaidh (Eve Yokjee)
Íbh or Uíbh Eochach, (Eve Okhekh). The modern town of Youghal (Eochaill) probably derives its name from this tribe.
Pronunciation: Áodh (E), Áodh is Anglicized as Hugh.
Pronunciation: Láoghaire (Leary)
Cineal Áodh (Kinelea)
Cineal Láoghaire (Kineleary)
Son of Eoghan Mor
Pronunciation: Ó Dunnahoo (Brown Warrior)
James Joyce, Ulysses, (Chapter 15: Nighttown), lines 4687-88, p. 489, Vintage Books, New York, 1986.

LINK TO:

APPENDIX A: Eoghanachta_Genealogy

APPENDIX B: Map of Eoghanchta Lands
 

*  Thomas Michael Donahue, born in 1921, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. His mother, Mary Josephine Lyndon, was born in a farm house on the banks of the Shannon, north of Tarbert, Co. Kerry. His paternal great-grandfather, Cornelius Donahue, and his grandfather, Michael, along with several other family members, emigrated from the townland of Coomacullen at the top of the Glen of the Flesk River (Glenflesk), near Killarney, to central Missouri in 1856.There his father, (Robert) Emmett was born in, 1876. Eventually, after a couple of years in the Army, Donahue obtained a doctorate in Physics at the Johns Hopkins University in 1947. Since then he has been on the faculties of  Hopkins, Pitt and U of Michigan, Ann  Arbor. He is one of the pioneers of Space Science, studying the atmospheres of  Earth and other planets from Venus to Neptune with instruments flown on NASA spacecraft. He was elected a member of the US National Academy of Science in 1983 and has chaired the NAS's Space Science Board. Many cousins,on his mother's and his father's side, live in Ireland, and he sees them often. Because of his interest in Irish and, particularly,  O Donoghue history, he returned to Glenflesk for the first of countless visits in 1962. At that time he met the great Schoolmaster and O Donoghue Genealogist, Denis Spillane, who became his mentor. With Denis's help he discovered the descendants of Cornelius, whose ancestors remained in the Glen with their mother, Mary Kealiher, when the rest of the family emigrated. His wife, Esther (McPherson),their three sons and their spouses all have advanced degrees of various flavors, ranging from History, through Architecture and Engineering to Atmospheric Chemistry. More information about this ODonnchadha family can be found on:      http://www.kinetics.harvard.edu/~cland/

Thomas Donahue at the U of M http://aoss.engin.umich.edu/Aoss/Faculty_Vitae/Donahue.html