Lehane (Irish : Ó Liatháin) is an uncommon Irish surname, typically from County Cork. Ó Liatháin is more frequently anglicized as Lane or Lyons .
Most people with this surname derive from the ancient Munster kingdom of Uí Liatháin, which was powerful in the early to mid 1st millennium, and one of the few important Irish kingdoms to have colonies in Britain, documented in both Irish and Welsh sources (see Byrne 2001; Ó Corráin 2001). Later Uí Liatháin became politically marginalized when the Eóganachta, or more specifically the descendants of Conall Corc, came to power - although the rath they accepted from the new dynasty was the largest (Byrne 2001) - but remained relatively independent until disintegrating in the later Middle Ages.
Uí Liatháin was the sister kingdom of Uí Fidgenti, and thus its people share common ancestry with the O'Donovans, Ó Coileáins, and others. More distantly all are related to the historical Eóganachta in the stricter sense, if not by common origins in Ireland then at least by nearly two millennia of alliances and intermarriage.
The earliest documented ancestor of the Uí Liatháin and Uí Fidgenti is the 3rd or 4th century Dáre Cerbba (Dáire Cearba), otherwise known as Maine Munchaín.
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 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. During the era of Roman rule in Britain, many members of the Déisi were recorded as settling in western coastal areas.
The O'Donovan family is an ancient Irish noble family. Their patronymic surname derives from Irish Ó Donnabháin, meaning the grandsons or descendants of Donnubán, referring to the 10th century ruler of the Uí Fidgenti, Donnubán mac Cathail. During the 12th and 13th century, O'Donovan relations relocated from the Bruree/Croom area south to the Kingdom of Desmond and to Carbery, where they were a ruling family for centuries and played a role in the establishment of a feudal society under the MacCarthys. Other septs retreated into the southeast corner of the Ui Fidgheinte territory, reaching from Broadford/Feenagh to the Doneraile area. The northern septs of the O'Donovans did not use a White Rod as the family's position in their original territory was vastly eroded, while several septs of O'Donovans in the southwest territories were semi-autonomous flatha under the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty in Carbery, with the most notable being local petty kings. The family were counted among the leading Gaelic nobility of Ireland.
Eóganacht Locha Léin or Uí Cairpre Luachra were a branch of the ruling Eóganachta of Munster. Their territory was in Iarmuman or West Munster. Luachair (Lúachra) is the old name of a large district on the borders of Co Cork, Kerry and Limerick. Cairbre of Sliobh Luachra was on the Cork-Kerry border; Eóganacht Locha Léin is around the Lakes of Killarney.
Ólchobar mac Cináeda was King of Munster from 847 until his death. He may be the "king of the Irish" who sent an embassy to Frankish Emperor Charles the Bald announcing a series of victories over Vikings in Ireland in 848.
Ólchobar mac Flainn was a supposed King of Munster from the Uí Fidgenti of County Limerick, allies and/or distant cousins of the Eóganachta. He was the first non-Eóganachta to be considered king in some sources. He belonged to a branch of the Uí Fidgenti known as the Uí Conaill Gabra, ancestors of the later famous septs of O'Connell of Kerry and Ó Coileáin of Carbery. His father Flann mac Erca and brother Scandlán mac Flainn were kings of the Uí Fidgenti.
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 Deirgtine, Clanna Dergthened or "Descendants of Dego Dergthened" were the proto-historical ancestors of the historical Eóganachta dynasties of Munster. Their origins are unclear but they may have been of fairly recent Gaulish derivation. Some evidence exists for their having been active in Roman Britain.
Bressal mac Ailello Thassaig was an early king of the Uí Liatháin who may also have been King of Munster. His sister, Angias, was the Queen of Lóegaire mac Néill, High King of Ireland.
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.