24 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



eized Tullaghagh, or Tullyhaw, represented the tribe-land of the descendants 

 of Eochaidh- a Breifni sept of whom in later centuries the Mac Samhra- 

 dlians, or Magaurans, were hereditary chiefs.' Their lords paramount were 

 the O'Enaircs, kings of West Breifni, East Breifni having been concurrently 

 swayed by the cognate family of Ua-Eaghallagh, or the O'Eeillys. Each and 

 all of these tribes belonged to the Ui-Briuin race of Connaught, a ruling stock 

 who, tracing their ancestry to Brian, son of Eochaidh Muiglimeadhoin, had 

 branched into numerous septs, and achieved supremacy throughout Breifni, 

 probably within a century of the introduction of Christianity. 



Breifni, or Sen-Breifni- — an area of wide extent, for it stretched from 

 Donegal Bay to the north-east corner of Co. Meath — thus came to be known 

 by the synonymous designations of Ui-Briuin, Breifni, and "The Two 

 Breifnis." Its outlines are permanently graved on our ecclesiastical maps, 

 the present diocese of Kilmore being territorially co-extensive with ancient 

 Breifni. Among the obits recorded in Irish Annals are those of a bishop 

 " of Breifni, from Drumcliff to Kells," in 1355, and of " the bishop of the two 

 Breifnis " in 1464.' In 1258 the hostages of " all the Ui-Briuin from Kells 

 to Drumcliff" were given to Aedh O'Conor, King of Connaught.^ These 

 entries will sufficiently demonstrate the geographical identity of Kilmore 

 Diocese with the united Breifni kingdoms. 



In the Annals, again, deaths of bishops of Conmaicne ai-e registered six 

 times in succession during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.* The 

 ecclesiastical Conmaicne remains unaltered as the diocese of Ardagh, which 

 had within it two rural rectories— that is, parochial population-groups 

 unconnected with monasteries or termon lands — named respectively Muiutir 

 Anghaile and Muintir Eoluis.* The same names designated the two affiliated 

 groups of tribes which, together, composed the Clann Fearguis of this region 

 — reputed descendants of Fergus Mac Eoy — and occupied the territory of 

 Conmaicne.' The boundary between Leitrim and Longford counties cuts the 

 diocese of Ardagh transversely, just along the line which separated Muintir 

 Anghaile on the east side from Muintir Eoluis on the west.' Muintir 

 Eoluis thus corresponded territorially to the Leitrim portion of Ardagh 



' "Irish Topographical Poems" (edited by O'Donovan), p. 55. 



"So called in tlie " Dindseanchas of Mag Luirg" (Todd Lecture Series, R.I. A. 

 vol. X, p. 397). 



' " Annals of Ulster." See also svh annis 1314 and 1421. 



* " Annals of Lough Ce," vol. i, p. 429. 



5 "Annals of Ulster," 1224, 1230 bis, 1237, 1289, 1322, 1343. 



" See "De Annatis Hiberniae," p. 163 (sm6 a'lino 1458). 



'' See "Irish Top. Poems," pp. 57. 58. 



8 Eor references see Hogan's " Onom. Goed.," pp. 546, 518. 



