The Déisi were a social class in Ireland between the ancient and early medieval period. The various peoples listed under the heading déis shared a similar status in Gaelic Ireland, and had little or no actual kinship, though they were often thought of as genetically related.[ citation needed ] During the era of Roman rule in Britain, many members of the Déisi were recorded as settling in western coastal areas (especially the areas known later as Wales, Cornwall and Devon).
During the early Middle Ages, some Déisi groups and subgroups exerted great political influence in various parts of Ireland. For instance, in Munster, a subgroup of Déisi constituted a regional kingdom, Déisi Muman, and were part of the hegemony of the Eoganachta confederacy.
Déisi is an Old Irish term that is derived from the word déis, which meant in its original sense a "vassal" or "subject" and, in particular, people who paid rent to a landowner. [1] As such, it denoted a specific social class. Later, however, it was more often used as a collective term for the members of particular septs, [2] regarded as originating in that social class.
The early histories of the Déisi groups are obscure. Evolving from peoples connected by social status rather than kinship, these groups had largely independent histories in different regions of Ireland. While some medieval texts attempt to give the Déisi an aristocratic origin, these are later fabrications dating to the period after the Déisi had gained political power. [3] Despite their tributary origins, representatives of at least one Déisi population would eventually achieve spectacular success, founding a powerful medieval dynasty which is still in existence.
Déisi groups included the Déisi Muman (the Déisi of Munster), Déisi Temro (Déisi of Tara), Déisi Becc ("Little Déisi," located in the Kingdom of Mide) and the Déisi Tuisceart (the Northern Déisi; a sept of which would become famous as the Dál gCais).
Today, 'Déisi' is an informal term for County Waterford and its people. [4]
The Déisi Muman were a prominent enough power to form their own regional kingdom in Munster from a fairly early date. In a recent title, Paul MacCotter states "The regional kingdom of Déisi Muman must have existed in roughly its present location from a very early period. Oghams dating perhaps from the fifth century record unique first names associated with its kings." [5] According to Francis John Byrne, there are certain inscriptional hints that both the Eóganachta and their Waterford Déisi vassals may have been of fairly recent Gaulish origins. [6] The ancestors of the Eóganachta are known as the Deirgtine and they are also believed to have been active in Roman Britain, one piece of evidence being the name of their capital Cashel, thought to be inspired by the Roman castella they observed on raids. [7] The Déisi Muman enjoyed a position in the later Eóganachta overkingdom suggesting of a special relationship. Byrne mentions it was noticed by Eoin MacNeill that a number of the early names in the Eóganachta pedigrees are found in oghams in the Déisi country of Waterford, among them Nia Segamain (NETASEGAMONAS), after the Gaulish war god Segomo. [8] According to MacNeill, the Waterford Déisi and the Eóganachta at Cashel "cannot well be disconnected". [9]
The Uí Liatháin dynasty were western neighbours of the proto-Déisi Muman along the southern Irish coast and raided and colonized parts of Wales and Cornwall. They are the best characterized of the South Irish colonists because of clear references to them by name in both early Irish and early British sources, while the presence of the Déisi Muman cannot actually be confirmed. [10] Also noted are the Laigin, particularly in North Wales. [11]
The Déisi Muman are the subjects of one of the most famous medieval Irish epic tales, The Expulsion of the Déisi . [12] This literary work, first written sometime in the eighth century, is a pseudo-historical foundation legend for the medieval Kingdom of Déisi Muman, which seeks to hide the historical reality that the kingdom's origins lay among the indigenous tributary peoples of Munster. To this end it attributes to "the Déisi" an entirely fictive royal ancestry at Tara. [1] The term "Déisi" is used anachronistically in The Expulsion of the Déisi, since its chronologically confused narrative concerns "events" that long predate the historical development of déisi communities into distinct tribal polities or the creation of the kingdom of Déisi Muman. [3] The epic tells the story of a sept called the Dal Fiachach Suighe, who are expelled from Tara by their kinsman, Cormac mac Airt, and forced to wander homeless. After a southward migration and many battles, part of the sept eventually settled in Munster.
At some point during this migration from Tara to Munster, one branch of the sept, led by Eochaid Allmuir mac Art Corb, sails across the sea to Britain where, it is said, his descendants later ruled in Demed, the former territory of the Demetae (modern Dyfed). The Expulsion of the Déisi is the only direct source for this "event". The historicity of this particular passage of the epic apparently receives partial "confirmation" from a pedigree preserved in the late tenth-century Harleian genealogies, in which the contemporary kings of Dyfed claim descent from Triphun (fl. 450), a great-grandson of Eochaid Allmuir, although the Harleian genealogy itself presents an entirely different version of Triphun's own ancestry in which he descends from a Roman imperial line traced back to St. Helena, whose alleged British origin the genealogist stresses. [13] This manifest fiction apparently reflects a later attempt to fabricate a more illustrious and/or indigenous lineage for the Dyfed dynasty, especially as other Welsh genealogical material partially confirms the Irish descent of Triphun. [14] If the relocation of some of the "Déisi" to Dyfed is indeed historical, it is unclear whether it entailed a large-scale tribal migration or merely a dynastic transfer, or both as part of a multi-phase population movement. [15] However this movement is characterised, scholarship has demonstrated that it cannot have taken place as early as the date implied in The Expulsion of the Déisi (i.e. shortly after the blinding of Cormac mac Airt, traditionally dated AD 265), but must have begun during the second half of the fourth century at the earliest, [16] while commencement in the sub-Roman period in the early fifth century cannot be excluded. [17] It is further entirely possible that the historians and genealogists of the Déisi Muman were guilty of lifting these "verified" ancestors, who could have originally belonged to another Irish kindred entirely. Genealogical feats of this kind were famously performed by the Déisi Tuisceart or "Dál gCais".[ citation needed ]
The term déisi is also virtually interchangeable with another Old Irish term, aithechthúatha (meaning "rent-paying tribes", "vassal communities" or "tributary peoples"). From the 18th century, it had been suggested that this term might be the origin of the Attacotti who are reported attacking Roman Britain in the 360s, although the argument has been doubted on etymological grounds. This argument has recently been reopened, however, by a proposed equation of déisi – aithechthúatha – Attacotti in a late fourth-century context. [18]
Finally, MacNeill discusses the movements of the Uí Liatháin mentioned above at considerable length, arguing their leadership in the South Irish conquests and founding of the later dynasty of Brycheiniog, figures in the Welsh genealogies matching Uí Liatháin dynasts in the Irish genealogies. He argues any possible settlement of the Déisi would have been subordinate until the ousting of the Uí Liatháin by the sons of Cunedda. [19]
Byrne later discusses how the rise of the Dál gCais sept of Déisi Tuisceart in North Munster at the expense of the Eóganachta was not unlike the rise of that dynasty at the expense of the Dáirine several centuries before, and this may in fact have been the inspiration for Dál gCais claims. [20] An earlier and frequently cited argument by John V. Kelleher is that this was a political scheme of the Uí Néill, Ireland's most dominant dynasty, whom he argues created the Kingdom of Thomond in the tenth century to further weaken the position of the already divided Eóganachta. [21] If true, the Uí Néill were creating who would soon become their greatest military rivals in nearly the last four centuries, threatening Tara as much as Cashel. The Déisi Muman, on the other hand, remained prominent supporters of the Eóganachta throughout their career.
The movement of the Déisi Tuisceart into the modern County Clare is not documented, but it is commonly associated with the "annex" of the region to Munster after the decline of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne power in south Connacht. Byrne suggests this dates from the victory of the king of Cashel, Faílbe Flann mac Áedo Duib, over the celebrated king of Connacht Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin at the Battle of Carn Feradaig in 627. [22]
A famous early 12th-century propaganda text detailing the rise of the Dál gCais is the Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib . [23]
Recent studies suggest the Dál gCais have a genetic signature unique to themselves, referred to as Irish Type III. [24] Belonging to Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA), this subclade R1b1b2a1a1b4h is defined by the presence of the marker R-L226/S168.
Mongfind is a figure from Irish legend. She is said to have been the wife, of apparent Munster origins, of the legendary High King Eochaid Mugmedón and mother of his eldest three sons, Brión, Ailill and Fiachrae, ancestors of the historical Connachta. She was Eochaid's first wife; his second wife, Cairenn, gave birth to Niall of the Nine Hostages. Several tales depict Mongfind as an adversary of Niall. Mongfind is also said to have been the sister of Crimthann mac Fidaig, King of Munster and the next High King of Ireland, whom she is said to have killed with poison in a bid to make her son king. She drank the poisoned drink to convince Crimthann, and died soon after at Samhain.
The Iverni were a people of early Ireland first mentioned in Ptolemy's 2nd century Geography as living in the extreme south-west of the island. He also locates a "city" called Ivernis in their territory, and observes that this settlement has the same name as the island as a whole, Ivernia. It was probably once the name given to all the peoples of Ireland, but by Ptolemy's time had a more restricted usage applicable to the inhabitants of the south-west. These Iverni can be identified linguistically with the Érainn, a people attested in Munster and elsewhere in the early Middle Ages.
The Eóganachta were an Irish dynasty centred on Cashel which dominated southern Ireland from the 6/7th to the 10th centuries, and following that, in a restricted form, the Kingdom of Desmond, and its offshoot Carbery, to the late 16th century. By tradition the dynasty was founded by Conall Corc but named after his ancestor Éogan, the firstborn son of the semi-mythological 3rd-century king Ailill Aulom. This dynastic clan-name, for it was never in any sense a 'surname,' should more accurately be restricted to those branches of the royal house which descended from Conall Corc, who established Cashel as his royal seat in the late 5th century.
Crimthann Mór, son of Fidach, also written Crimthand Mór, was a semi-mythological king of Munster and High King of Ireland of the 4th century. He gained territory in Britain and Gaul, but died poisoned by his sister Mongfind. It is possible that he was also recognized as king of Scotland. This Crimthann is to be distinguished from two previous High Kings of Ireland of the same name, two Kings of Leinster, and another King of Munster, among others. Importantly, he is included in the Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig (summary), and is thus the last High King of Ireland from Munster until Brian Bóruma, over six hundred years later.
The history of Ireland 795–1169 covers the period in the history of Ireland from the first Viking raid to the Norman invasion. The first two centuries of this period are characterised by Viking raids and the subsequent Norse settlements along the coast. Viking ports were established at Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, which became the first large towns in Ireland.
The Dal Fiachrach Suighe were an Irish lineage claiming descent from Fiachra Suighe, the youngest of six sons of Fedlimid Rechtmar. His oldest brother was the legendary High King Conn Cétchathach. They are the ancestors of the Déisi Muman and the Déisi Tuisceart.
The Dalcassians are a Gaelic Irish clan, generally accepted by contemporary scholarship as being a branch of the Déisi Muman, that became very powerful in Ireland during the 10th century. Their genealogies claimed descent from Tál Cas. Their known ancestors are the subject of The Expulsion of the Déisi tale and one branch of their blood-line went on to rule the petty kingdom of Dyfed in Wales during the 4th century; probably in alliance with the Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus.
Lehane is an uncommon Irish surname, typically from County Cork. Ó Liatháin is more frequently anglicized as Lane or Lyons.
Cathal mac Finguine was an Irish King of Munster or Cashel, and effectively High King of Ireland as well. He belonged to the Eóganacht Glendamnach sept of the dominant Eóganachta kin-group whose members dominated Munster from the 7th century to the 10th. His father, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather had also been kings of Cashel, as were his son and grandson.
Cellachán mac Buadacháin, called Cellachán Caisil, was King of Munster.
The Kingdom of Munster was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland which existed in the south-west of the island from at least the 1st century BC until 1118. According to traditional Irish history found in the Annals of the Four Masters, the kingdom originated as the territory of the Clanna Dedad, an Érainn tribe of Irish Gaels. Some of the early kings were prominent in the Red Branch Cycle such as Cú Roí and Conaire Mór. For a few centuries they were competitors for the High Kingship of Ireland, but ultimately lost out to the Connachta, descendants of Conn Cétchathach. The kingdom had different borders and internal divisions at different times during its history.
The Uí Liatháin were an early kingdom of Munster in southern Ireland. They belonged the same kindred as the Uí Fidgenti, and the two are considered together in the earliest sources, for example The Expulsion of the Déisi (incidentally). The two have been given various origins among both the early or proto-Eóganachta and among the Érainn or Dáirine by different scholars working in a number of traditions, with no agreement ever reached or appearing reachable. It is entirely possible that they were the product of a combination of lineages from both these royal kindreds, or alternatively of another origin entirely.
Dáire Cerbba was a 4th-century Irish dynast who was evidently a king of late prehistoric central northern Munster, called Medón Mairtíne at the time. A frequently believed grandson of his, Crimthann mac Fidaig, was High King of Ireland and some British territories, and another descendant Bressal mac Ailello may have been King of Munster, and whose sister Angias was Queen of Lóegaire mac Néill, High King of Ireland. Finally, another descendant, according to Geoffrey Keating, was a king of Munster named Cormac, son of Ailill, son of Eochaid, son of Dáire Cearb.
The Dáirine, later known dynastically as the Corcu Loígde and associated, were the proto-historical rulers of Munster before the rise of the Eóganachta in the 7th century AD. They were derived from or closely associated with the Darini of Ptolemy and were also related to the Ulaid and Dál Riata of Ulster and Scotland. Their ancestors appear frequently in the Ulster Cycle. In historical times the Dáirine were represented, as stated, by the Corcu Loígde, the Uí Fidgenti and Uí Liatháin, as well as a few other early historical kindreds of both Munster and Ulster. In ancient genealogical schemes, the historical Dál Fiatach of Ulaid also belong to the Dáirine.
The Corcu Loígde, meaning Gens of the Calf Goddess, also called the Síl Lugdach meic Itha, were a kingdom centred in West County Cork who descended from the proto-historical rulers of Munster, the Dáirine, of whom they were the central royal sept. They took their name from Lugaid Loígde "Lugaid of the Calf Goddess", a King of Tara and High King of Ireland, son of the great Dáire Doimthech. A descendant of Lugaid Loígde, and their most famous ancestor, is the legendary Lugaid Mac Con, who is listed in the Old Irish Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig. Closest kin to the Corcu Loígde were the Dál Fiatach princes of the Ulaid.
The Uí Fidgenti, Fidgeinti, Fidgheinte, Fidugeinte, Fidgente, or Fidgeinte were an early kingdom of northern Munster in Ireland, situated mostly in modern County Limerick, but extending into County Clare and County Tipperary, and possibly even County Kerry and County Cork, at maximum extents, which varied over time. They flourished from about 377 AD to 977, although they continued to devolve for another three hundred years. They have been given various origins among both the early or proto-Eóganachta and among the Dáirine by different scholars working in a number of traditions, with no agreement ever reached or appearing reachable.
The Expulsion of the Déisi is a medieval Irish narrative of the Cycles of the Kings. It dates approximately to the 8th century, but survives only in manuscripts of a much later date. It describes the fictional history of the Déisi, a group that had gained political power in parts of Ireland during the Early Middle Ages. Part of the text's purpose is to provide the kings of the Déisi – historically the descendants of unlanded vassals to other tribes – with a mythical noble origin as the heirs to a dynasty expelled from Tara.
Donnubán ('donuva:n), Donndubán ('donðuva:n), or Donnabán mac Cathail, anglicised Donovan, son of Cahall, was a tenth-century ruler of the Irish regional kingdom of Uí Fidgenti, and possibly also of the smaller overkingdom of Uí Chairbre Áebda within that. In contemporary sources he is only named king of the former, but his sons and later descendants appear as dynasts of the latter. In addition, at his death in 980 Donovan is styled King of Ressad, a unique title in the surviving Irish annals, and the identity of which place is uncertain. He is the progenitor of the medieval and modern O'Donovan family.
The O'Brien dynasty was an Irish Clan and noble house of Munster, founded in the 10th century by Brian Boru of the Dál gCais (Dalcassians). After becoming King of Munster, through conquest he established himself as Ard Rí na hÉireann. Brian's descendants thus carried the name Ó Briain, continuing to rule the Kingdom of Munster until the 12th century where their territory had shrunk to the Kingdom of Thomond which they would hold for just under five centuries.
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