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Briuin Seola; 3. Ceallach, from whom the Mac Kilkelly's of the same; 4. Clercean, from whom (according to Lib. Ballymote, ut supra) the O'Clerchean; 5. Maol-na n-gall, from whom the family of that name; and 6. Flaithbhertach, from whom the O'Flaherties. From the latter also sprung the Clan Donogh (now Mac Donogh), Clan Connor, & Clann Mac Dermod duff of Iar-Connaught." Mac Firbis, in his larger work, has given the following branch, viz. "Rory of Aghnenure in Gnomore, father of Morogh, father of Edmond, Teige, Aodh, Rory, Murcertach, Brian, and Donnell," but not having connected it with any of the other lines, it could not therefore be abstracted. His table ends at No. 38; but the two descents have been continued to the present time, from family documents, tradition, and information given by the late Talbot O'Flaherty, Esq., (Gen. table II. no. 42,) and other members of the family. Tradition relates that two brothers of the Sliocht Eoghan race, Donnell and Brian, emigrated to Dingle (Daingin Ui Chuis), in the County of Kerry, where their posterity still continue respectable. A learned member of this branch, John T. O'Flaherty, Esq., was author of "The History and Antiquities of the Southern Islands of Arran, lying off the West Coast of Ireland," printed in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xiv.

The armorial bearings of the O'Flaherty family are, Argent, two lions counterrampant, supporting a dexter hand, couped at the wrist, gules: in base, an antique galley, oars in action, sable.-Crest, on a helmet and wreath of its colours, a lizard, passant, verta.-Supporters, on the dexter, a lion, gules, argent, armed and langued, azure; on the sinister, a griffin, argent, armed and langued, gules.—Motto, "Fortuna favet fortibus."

The

intelligit hostem alicubi esse in insidiis".-Erasm. Col. Amicitia. As usual, the tradition assigns no date; but that may be supplied from the Gen. Table, II., where the agnomen of Amhaladh (Awley), viz., Earclasaigh, signifies an eft or lizard. This refers to the seventh century. Our eccentric historian Taaffe, Ireland, vol. i. p. 556, Dub. Ed. 1809, states that he had read in an old vellum MS., to which he gives no reference, "Concerning the migration of the Hy-m-Briuin tribe towards the Shannon. They divided themselves into three columns, the standard of each was a serpent of burnished gold." Whatever credit this may be entitled to, it would appear from Mac Curtin's English-Irish Dictionary, voce Lizard, that the serpent and the lizard bear the same name

This crest, according to tradition, was chosen from the following incident: In days of yore, one of the chiefs of the O'Flaherties, retreating from his enemies, was overcome by fatigue, and taking advantage of a sequestered spot to rest himself, he fell fast asleep. His pursuers were close approaching, when a lizard, a creature said to be friendly to man, by running up and down his face and neck, and gently scraping and tickling with its nails, at length awoke the chief in sufficient time to enable him to effect his escape. But the latter part of the story may be better told in the words of Erasmus :-"Circumcursat per collum et faciem hominis: nec finem facit, donec pruritu scalptuque unguium excitetur. Porro qui expergiscitur, conspectâ in propinquo lacertâ; mox

The length to which the foregoing annotations have extended, renders it necessary to confine the remainder of this Appendix to a brief detail of the principal transactions of Iar-Connaught, as related in our annals; with passing notices of its ancient chieftains, merely as an illustration of the annexed genealogical tables. This detail will be authenticated by several original documents, never before published; and some of these may possibly be considered interesting even beyond the limits to which they relate. Indeed, the narrative, if such it can be called, is itself principally intended as a medium for the preservation of those local evidences, many of which, if omitted here, might long remain unexplored, or probably be lost for ever.

Duach Teangumha", named in the annexed pedigrees, who has been by some called the third Christian king of Connaught, was the seventh in descent from Eochaidh Muighmheadhoin, great ancestor of the Muinter Murchadha, or O'Flaherties. This prince was slain in the battle of Seaghsa, near Coran, in the present County of Sligo, A. D. 500°, in which battle Murchertach, the son of Erca, monarch of Ireland, was victor. Duach's descendants, Cinnfaela, son of Colgand, fell in the battle of Eastern Seola, A. D. 653o. From this Cinnfhaola descended Morogh, or Murchadh, son of Maonach', who died A. D. 8918. From him was derived the tribe-name of the O'Flaherties, and their correlatives, i. e. the Muintir Murchadha". At this period, and for many ages after, this tribe dwelt to the east of the great lake Orbsen, now Lough Corrib, on the fertile plains of Moy Seola, which now form the barony of Clare, but which anciently included the district surrounding the present town of Galway, east of the river. In the Annals, the tribe is indiscriminately called Muintir Murchadha, and Hy-Briuin Seola, for several generations. Their territory is also distinguished from that

in the Irish language.

b"Duachus linguæ æris dicitur, forsan a tuba ærea, Ere ciere viros Martemque accendere cantu.” O'Conor, Rerum. Hib. Script. Annal. Tig., p. 126, n. 5. The ancient, and certainly more pleasing signification of the name, is thus given by Mac Firbis :"Duac Teanguma .1. ar binne auplabrad ad-berzi antainm sin fris, uair nir binne ceol crot ina gaċ focal uada. Duachus Teangumha was so named from the sweetness of his voice; for the music of the harp was not sweeter than the sound of his words.”—p. 210.

Annal. Tig. ad an. & Four Masters, A. D. 499. All our Annalists differ, more or less, from the common era; but their dates will be observed in this

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that extending westward from the lake, which was known by the names of Dealbhna Feadha or Tire da Loch, i. e. the Dealbhna, or Delvin of the country of the two lakes, (called also Gnomore and Gnobeg, lying between Lough Orbsen and Lough Lurgan, or the Bay of Galway), and Conmhaicne-mara now anglicised Connamara, or the Sea Conmhaicne, bordering on the Atlantic ocean. The Muintir Murchadha are thus described by O'Dugan, in his topographical poem before quoted, which refers to the twelfth century:

Clann Murcaỏa an muirse arcaiz,
Ag muintir laind Flaiżbeartaig.
Teicheò pe na ngleo oleaghar

leo feizem na bpionnchalad.

Clan Murchadha of the amiable mansions
Had the warlike O'Flaherties'.

To flee from their onset is meet;

To them belongs the watching of the fair harbours.

In A. D. 923, it is recorded that the people of Conmhaicne-mara slew the Danish chieftain Tomrar, the son of Tomralt. It appears that about the same time the Danes made several predatory incursions into the west of Connaught. In A. D. 927, a party of these invaders, from Limerick, seized upon Lough Orbsen, and destroyed its islands, but they were soon after defeated, with considerable slaughter, by the Connacians'. Murchadh, king of the Hy-Briuin, died soon after; and his son Archad, or Urchada, who was styled Lord of Iar-Connaught, died in A. D. 943k. It may be necessary here to observe, that the chiefs of the Muintir Murchadha were frequently, as in the present instance, styled in the Annals, lords of Iar or Western Connaught, which, I conjecture, meant only their native inheritance of Moy-Seola, and not the territories west of Lough Orbsen, which, at the time last alluded to, and for centuries after, were under the rule of their own hereditary chieftains'. It was not until the thirteenth century that those districts, now properly called Iar-Connaught, fell under the power of the O'Flaherties, as will appear in the sequel. The foregoing conjecture

See ante, pp. 93, 145, 253, for the other districts beyond the lake and their chiefs, as mentioned by O'Dugan. O'Cabain (O'Kyne), O'Dorcada (O'Dorchy or Darcy), and O'Gormóg (O'Gormoge), were the ancient rulers of Partraighe an tsleibhe, or Partry of the mountain; now the barony of Ross, sometimes called Duthaidh Seoigheach, or Joyce's country, and for which see ante, p. 246.

JFour Masters.In the Chronicon Scotorum, this slaughter is assigned to A. D. 930.

* Gen. Table, no. 17, 18. This Urchada, also called

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appears borne out by the same annalists, who, when recording the death of Donnchadh. son of Murchadh, already noticed, A. D. 959, style him lord of Hy-Briuin Seola only". Towards the close of this century, a fortified residence in Moy-Seola, probably that of its chiefs, was destroyed in a great storm"; soon after which "Maelcereda, King of the Hy-Briuin Seola°," and "Muredhach, son of Cadhla, king of Conmaicne-mara"," died. About this time Brian Boroimhe, son of Kennedy, King of Munster, dispatched a body of forces to Iar-Connaught, which committed great depredations. On this occasion Muireadheach (or Murray), son of Conor, King of Connaught, Donnell, son of Rudhraidh or Roderick, son of Cosgrach, presumptive heir to the principality of Iar-Connaught, and others of its nobles, were slain".

Connaught was at this time harassed by internal wars and dissensions. About the beginning of the eleventh century the O'Conors, of the Sil Murray race, made hostile incursions into the western districts of the province, where they sought to establish themselves in several localities, some of which they succeeded in wresting, for a time, from the ancient possessors. Among the Irish chieftains, even to a late period, it was considered a sacred duty which they owed themselves and their ancestors to preserve their rights and hereditary possessions inviolate and entire against all aggressors; hence these encroachments of the O'Conors occasioned violent disputes and conflicts between them and the Muintir Murchadha or O'Flaherties, which continued for more than a century after this period. To similar territorial aggressions may be attributed many of the unexplained local outrages which stain our annals.

In A. D. 1014, the prince of the Muintir Murchadha and Murtagh O'Cadhla, chief of Conmhaicne-mara, joined the standard of Brian Borumha, and both fell in the

m Four Masters. See those Annals, at A. D. 971, for the devastations committed in Connaught by Murcha O'Flaherty, i. e. Glunillar, King of Aileach, Care must here be taken not to confound the O'Flaherties of Connaught with those of the same name in the North of Ireland, who were of the Hy-Niall race. In A. D. 1206, Flaherty O'Flaherty, of this family, was prior of Dungiven, in the present county of Derry.-Four Masters. The descendants of the name are now invariably called Lafferty or Laverty, in the North of Ireland, where they were numerous.

"This is related by the Four Masters, as follows: "A. D. 990, Angaeż do flocao Insi loco Cimbe co hobant in aon uair, con adreic agus sonnaċ, .i. triċat traged.

celebrated A great wind swallowed the island of Lough Kime suddenly in one hour, with its habitation and circular wall, which was thirty feet." This lake is now called Lough Hackett. It is situate in the county of Galway, between the towns of Headford and Shruel.

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