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37. Pettegree of John Blake, alias Caddle,

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HE territory of West Connaught, the antient seigniory of the O'Flaherties, was extended of old beyond Lough Orbsen, and the river and town of Gallway, to the barronies of Kilmain, Clare, and Dunkellind.

Its cathedrall (as every Irish seigniory had its own, whose diocess runned with the seigniory's bounds) was Enagh

a Roderic O'Flaherty. For a biographical notice of this learned individual see the genealogical and historical account of the O'Flaherties, compiled from original documents, in Appendix III.

West Connaught.-Accurately so called, says De Burgo in his Hibernia Dominicana, for it is like a peninsula forming IRISH ARCH. SOC. 15.

dun,

the West of Connaught, nay, even of all Ireland. "Et merito quidem, est enim ad instar Peninsula in Occiduo Conacia, immo totius Hiberniæ."-p. 308. It is in Irish called lap or lapean Connact, but by our author, in his Ogygia, p. 386, latinized "West-connactia ;" and was one of the great divisions of the cuigeao, fifth *B

dun, dedicated to St. Brendan, the 16th of May, Anno Christi, 577, there deceased, in the barony of Clare, on the brink of Lough Orb

or province of Connaught, which was itself, anciently, the most extensive of the five provinces, or cuigeaòa, into which Ireland was originally divided.

с

Lough Orbsen.—Or Oirb, now corruptly Corrib. For an account of this lake, and of the river and town of Galway, mentioned immediately after in the text, see further on in this treatise.

a Kilmain, Clare, and Dunkellin.—Kilmain, in Irish, Cill Mheadoin, a barony in the south of the county of Mayo; of which that part lying south of the River Robe was the ancient territory of Conmhaicne cuile toladh, one of the five Conmhaicnes of Connaught, for which see our author's Ogygia, P. iii. ch. xlvi. p. 276. This was the ancient seignory of O'Talcarain. ap Conmaicnecuile at clos, O Talcarain.—O’Dugan's Topogr. Poem, Stanz. 55. See also Lynch's Cambr. Evers. p. 27; and O'Brien's Dict., in voce Conmhaicne. The race of O'Talcarain has long since become extinct. After them the O'Conors, of the Siol-Muireadhoigh race, seem to have acquired power and possessions in this district. In A. D. 1155, the church of Kilmain was burned. -Four Masters. The O'Flaherties at an early period acquired some small portions of the southern part of this rich district, which bordered on their own territory of Ui bruin seola; but the entire was afterwards possessed by the Anglo-Norman adventurers, chiefly the Burkes and their

sen;

descendants, who built the castles mentioned in the text. In the thirteenth century, this territory was the scene of great warring and contention, between those adventurers and the native tribes, the O'Conors and the O'Flaherties.-See the Annals of the Four Masters, particularly at A. D. 1225, et sequent. In A.D. 1265, a conference took place at Kilmain, between Tomaltach O'Conor, Archbishop of Tuam, and the Prendergasts, at which many of the Archbishop's people were slain. Id. See Ware's account of this dispute, where he incorrectly calls this place Kilmethan. In A. D. 1585, the ancient district of Conmhaicne cuile toladh was created the barony of Kilmain, so called from the ancient church there. Archdall was unacquainted with the site or name of this foundation.-See Monast. p. 503. In A.D. 1789, Sir John Browne, Bart., was created Baron Kilmain of the Neale, in the county of Mayo.-Ir. Peerage.

Clare. This was the ancient territory of Ui bruin Seola, the original inheritance of the O'Flaherties, or Muintir Murchada (from Morogh, the son of Maonach, who died A. D. 891.-Four Masters), which included the districts of Ui Bruin Ratha and Clann Feargaile, in the latter of which Galway was situate. It was also called Muintir Murchadha, from the tribe name of the possessors. Rickard Earl of Clanrickard, who died 24th July, A. D.

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