3 14 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



(Tillyra, Co. Galway), Rinn Tamain (Tawin, Co. Galway), Cn'ch Aidne 

 (= Kilmacduach diocese, Co. Oalway), Boirenn (Burren barony, Co. Clare). 

 (BB 30 b 10-20). 



It is thus evident that the Bace of Umor was anciently known as an 

 unfree population, believed not to be Gaelic in origin, inhabiting, among 

 other western tracts, the kingdom of Unihall, including Clare Island and 

 the islands of Clew Bay. 



Over them in Umhall ruled a patrician folk known as Fir Umhaill, the 

 Men of Umhall, otherwise the Ui Briuin of Umhall. These were a sub-sept 

 of the Ui Briuin of Connacht, descendants of Brion, who lived about a.d. 

 400, being a brother of Niall of the Nine Hostages. They belonged to the 

 kindred called Dal Cuinn or Connachta, meaning not the inhabitants in 

 general of the province of Connacht, Coiced Connacht, the Fifth of the 

 Connachta, but the dominant gens who ruled the province, and from whom it 

 was named. 1 The oldest known habitat of this folk is defined by the name 

 Machaire Connacht, " the plain of the Connachta," otherwise known as Mag 

 Aoi. In it was the seat of their ancient kings, Cruachain Aoi or Raith 

 Cruachan (" Rathcroghan," Co. Roscommon). 



The Connachta or Dal Cuinn afford the most remarkable example of the 

 expansion of the patrician race. This expansion, in their case, can be traced 

 continuously from the fourth century until the fourteenth, when Clann Aodha 

 Buidhe, the descendants of Aodh Buidhe Ua Neill, king of Tyrone, 1260-1283, 

 established themselves over a large part of the feudal territory of the earldom 

 of Ulster, east of the river Bann. Tor an ancient list of the possessions of 

 Dal Cuinn, before the feudal invasion, see my paper on " Early Irish 

 Population groups," § 158. At the end of the list are the Men of Umhall. 



In the genealogies of the Ui Briuin (BB 89), the first pedigree given is that 

 of Domhnall Ruadh Ua Maille, dynast of Umhall, " killed by Clann Mebric and 

 other foreigners (feudal settlers) " on Christmas night, 1337. He is twelfth 

 in descent from Maille, the dynast from whom the surname is derived, and 

 whose date should be about 400 years earlier. From Maille up to Conall 

 Oirisen, son of Brion, there should be about sixteen generations. The pedigree 

 has only seven, and therefore cannot be held authentic in detail to any point 

 earlier than the eighth century. That the Ui Briuin were settled in Umhall 

 in the eighth century is clear from the mention of " nepotes Briuin Huniil " in 

 the Annals of Ulster, A.D. 786. The family of Ua Maille was for many 

 centuries at the head of this sept in Umhall. They were a sea-going stock. 



1 The names Ulaidh and Laighin, in like manner, have a general and a strict meaning. In 

 the stiict sense, as used by the genealogists, they denote only the dominant dynastic races of ancient 

 Ulster and Leinster. 



