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Since the early 17th century, there have been four Provinces of Ireland: Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; however, in the medieval period there were more. The number of provinces and their delimitation fluctuated until 1610, when they were permanently set by the English administration of James I. The provinces of Ireland no longer serve administrative or political purposes but function as historical and cultural entities.
The early medieval history of Ireland, often called Early Christian Ireland, spans the 5th to 8th centuries, from the gradual emergence out of the protohistoric period to the beginning of the Viking Age. The period notably includes the Hiberno-Scottish mission of Christianised Ireland to regions of pagan Great Britain and the spread of Irish cultural influence to Continental Europe.
Early Irish law, historically referred to as Féineachas or Dlí na Féine, also called Brehon law, comprised the statutes which governed everyday life in Early Medieval Ireland. They were partially eclipsed by the Norman invasion of 1169, but underwent a resurgence from the 13th until the 17th century, over the majority of the island, and survived into Early Modern Ireland in parallel with English law. Early Irish law was often mixed with Christian influence and juristic innovation. These secular laws existed in parallel, and occasionally in conflict, with canon law throughout the early Christian period.
Donnchad mac Domnaill, called Donnchad Midi, was High King of Ireland. His father, Domnall Midi, had been the first Uí Néill High King from the south-central Clann Cholmáin based in modern County Westmeath and western County Meath, Ireland. The reigns of Domnall and his successor, Niall Frossach of the Cenél nEógain, had been relatively peaceful, but Donnchad's rule saw a return to a more expansionist policy directed against Leinster, traditional target of the Uí Néill, and also, for the first time, the great southern kingdom of Munster.
The Déisi were a socially powerful class of peoples from Ireland that settled in Wales and West England between the ancient and early medieval period. The various peoples listed under the heading déis shared the same status in Gaelic Ireland, and had little or no actual kinship, though they were often thought of as genetically related. During the Early Middle Ages some Déisi groups and subgroups exerted great political influence in various parts of Ireland, and certain written sources suggest a connection to Britain as well. During early medieval Munster, the Déisi were under the hegemony of the Eoganachta confederacy.
Domhnall Mac Murchada, called Domnall Midi, was High King of Ireland. He belonged to the Clann Cholmáin branch of the Uí Néill. Clann Cholmáin's pre-eminence among the southern Uí Néill, which would last until the rise of Brian Bóruma and the end of the Uí Néill dominance in Ireland, dates from his lifetime.
Dál Fiatach was a Gaelic dynastic-grouping and the name of their territory in the north-east of Ireland during the Middle Ages. It was part of the over-kingdom of Ulaid, and they were its main ruling dynasty for most of Ulaid's history. Their territory lay in eastern County Down. Their capital was Dún Lethglaise (Downpatrick) and from the 9th century their main religious site was Bangor Abbey.
Congal Cáech was a king of the Cruthin of Dál nAraidi in the medieval Irish province of Ulaid, from around 626 to 637. He was king of Ulaid from 627–637 and, according to some sources, High King of Ireland.
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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, so too were his son and grandson.
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Daniel Anthony Binchy (1899–1989) was a scholar of Irish linguistics and Early Irish law.
Áed mac Echach Tirmcharna was a King of Connacht from the Uí Briúin branch of the Connachta. He was the son of Echu Tirmcharna mac Fergusso. He came to the throne in the year 557 and ruled until 575.
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Luccreth moccu Chíara was a poet from County Kerry, Ireland who wrote in archaic Old Irish. Moccu is an archaic form marking affiliation to an ancestral population group or gens, in this case the Cíarraige. James Carney identifies the poet in genealogies of the Cíarraige as the last of six sons of a certain Áine, a descendant of Mug Airt, also known as Cíar, son of the legendary Ulaid hero Fergus mac Róich and supposed founder of the Cíarraige. The genealogies add that Luccreth had no children, and that "His dwelling-place faces the church of Cluain on the south".
Flann Mainistrech was an Irish poet and historian.
The Uí Liatháin (IPA:[ˈiːˈlʲiəhaːnʲ]) 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.
Íar mac Dedad was a legendary King of Munster. He is the father, or in some sources more distant ancestor, of Eterscél Mór, and grandfather of the famous Conaire Mór, both High Kings of Ireland.
The Síl Conairi or "Seed of Conaire" were those Érainn septs of the legendary Clanna Dedad descended from the monarch Conaire Mór, son of Eterscél Mór, a descendant of Deda mac Sin, namely the Dál Riata, Múscraige, Corcu Duibne, and Corcu Baiscinn.
Dubthach maccu Lugair, is a legendary Irish poet and lawyer who supposedly lived at the time of St Patrick's mission in Ireland and in the reign of Lóegaire mac Néill, high-king of Ireland, to which Dubthach served as Chief Poet and Brehon. In contrast to the king and his druids, he is said to have readily accepted the new religion. This event has played a major part in Hiberno-Latin and Irish sources as representing the integration of native Irish learning with the Christian faith.
References
- ↑ electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language s.v. aiccecht, airaiccecht.
- ↑ Liam Breatnach, A Companion to the Corpus Iuris Hibernici, pp. 316-7.
- ↑ T.M. Charles-Edwards, "Early Irish law." In A New History of Ireland, p. 347.
