26 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



names are Onghteragh and Drumieilly.' In early times the O'Euairc kings 

 chose Tuaim Seanchaidh, at the north side of Magh Angaidhe, for their 

 principal seat; and, judging by the number of " OTiuairc castles" which 

 subsequently arose in the neighbourhood,^ this Magh must have been appro- 

 priated for the use, as demesne land, of the O'Paiairc royal family and its 

 principal officers of state. 



Cinel Luachain, primarily the name of a Conmaicne sept,^ whose chiefs 

 were the MacDorchaidhs, got politically fused as a htath with O'Eiiairc's 

 division of Ui-Briuin Breifni, and thereby segregated from the Mag Eannall 

 chiefry, to which it originally belonged. After the thirteenth century the 

 Annalists cease to distinguish the O'Euaircs as kings of Breifni and Con- 

 maicne, showing that the O'Euairc suzerainty over Conmaicne had then lapsed*; 

 and in the fourteenth century the dominion of O'Euairc embraced eight 

 petty kingdoms, of which the sub-kingdom of MacDorchaidh made one.^ 

 Thenceforth Clinel-Luachain and Magh Angaidhe formed part of West 

 Breifni, the corresponding ecclesiastical divisions of Onghteragh and Drum- 

 reilly becoming merged in the diocese of Kilmore. But the districts w'ere, 

 and are, still part and parcel of the original Conmaicne Magh Eein; and 

 their absorption into the Ui-Briuin governmental area of church and state 

 organization cannot obliterate, though it may obscure,* the ancient boundary- 

 line separating Magh Eein and Magh Sleacht. 



At the dawn of our recorded history Magh Sleacht belonged to the 

 Masraighe or Tuath Masraighe, one of the rent-paying tribes of ancient 

 Ireland.' These Masraighe must have occupied Magh Sleacht in St. Patrick's 

 time, for in 464 a.d. they were still strong and bold enough to make a 

 marauding dash into Meath.° In the following century they were ousted, or 



> This is proved by several entries in " De Annatis Hiberniae " (see pp. 230, 232, and 

 238). O'Donovan ("Four Masters," 1403 a.d., and "Top. Poems," note 267) 

 correctly identified Cinel -Luachain. 



' See M'Parlan's "Statistical Survey of Co. Leitrim," p. 90 et seq. 



3 See "Book of Fenagh," p. 389. 



^ The O'RuaircB sometimes strove to reassert their sway over Magh Eein (see, e.g., 

 "Ann. L. Ce," vol. ii, p. 57); and they were so strongly settled there in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time that Co. Leitrim was then commonly called " O'Royrk's (or Rowerk's) 

 Country" in State papers. See, e.g., Perrott's "Indenture" in Hardiman's " lar- 

 Connaught," p. 346, and Morrin's " Calendar," vol. ii, p. 522. So was Clandeboy an 

 " O'Neill's Country," but that did not make it part of ancient Tir-Eoghan. 



5 " Irish Top. Poems," pp. 55-57. 



" That it is liable to do so is evidenced by Dr. Healy's erroneous description of Magh 

 Sieacht (" Life of St. Patrick," p. 183). 



7 "Book of Ballymote," folio 140. 



^ "Four Masters," sid) anno ; also " Book of Fenagh," p. 89. 



