Clan MacLea - Livingstone

The Official Home of the Clan McLea (The ancient historical name of the Livingstones)

The Kingdom of Ulaid - old Ulster

The Ulaid were once the most powerful tribal group in the north of Ireland and it is from them the province of Ulster derives its name.

In the sixth century the main Ulaid tribes were

1. the Dál nAraide,
2. the Ui Echach Coba, ( a sub branch of the Dál nAraide)
3. and the Dál Fiatach.

Lesser kingdoms within the reduced Ulster were the Conaille Muirthemne and the Dál Riata or Dál Riada.

From the sixth to tenth centuries the kingship of Ulaid was shared by the three main tribes but later, most of the kings were of the Dál Fiatach. Conflict between the Dál Fiatach and the Dál nAraide appears to have been common, but they seem to have come together again in the twelth century when faced with a common enemy - the English. The Dál nAraide and the Dál Riata became close and possibly went into an alliance with each other at least from the end of the sixth century.

The Dál nAraidi and their sub branch the Ui Echach Cobo were Cruithni and sometimes referred to as Irish Picts.

Mac Duinnshleibhe and the Dál Fiatach

Ruaidhri Mac Duinnsleibhe was the last King of Ulidia dying at the end of the twelfth century . Rory, son of Dunsleve, is number 54 on O'Hart's roll of the Kings of Ulidia and is described as "the last King of Ulidia, and its fifty-fourth king since the advent of St. Patrick to Ireland."

According to Byrne the Ulaid rigdamnai alone used the name Mac Duinnshleibhe

“ So for instance when after 1137 the Dál Fiatach kingship was confined to the descendants of Donn Sleibe Mac Eochada (slain in 1091), the rigdamnai set themselves apart from the rest of the family by using the name Mac Duinnshleibhe (Donleavy)." Byrne, page 128

Mac Duinnshleibhe and the Dál-Araidhe

Although Byrne implies that Mac Duinnshleibhe is king if the Dál Fiatach the folowing extract suggests that they were kings of the Dál-Araidhe

U1177.5 A hosting by John De Courcy and by the knights into Dal-Araidhe (and to Dun-da-lethlas), on which they killed Domnall, grandson of Cathusach [Mac Duinnsleibhe Ua Eochadha], king of Dál-Araidhe.

Mac Duinnshleibhe, Fiachu Fermara and Dál Riada

Several sources such as the Genelach .H. Dhuinn Slebhe from O'Clery's Book of Genealogies state that Donn Sleibe Mac Eochada descended from Fiachu Fermara (Fiach Fearmara)

Dál Riada territory was originally in the north east of Ulster but as they colonised Argyll so the Ui Neill squeezed them out of their old territories. Fergus Mór MacEarca, son of Erc moved the throne of the Dál Riada from Ulster to Dunadd (c500) near where the River Add flows into Loch Crinan in Argyll.. The Book of Ballymote and Rawlinson confirm that Fiachu Fermara (or Fiach Fearmara) is the ancestor of Fergus Mac Erc and his brother Loarn - The Royal House of Dalriada.

Fiacha Araidhe and the Dál nAraide

The Annals of the Four Masters inform us that:

M10.1 The first year of the reign of Cairbre Cinncait, after he had killed the nobility, except a few who escaped from the massacre in which the nobles were murdered by the Aitheach Tuatha. These are the three nobles who escaped from them at that time: . . . Tibraide Tireach, from whom are the Dál Araidhe; . . . And as to these, it was in their mothers' wombs they escaped. . . . and Aine, daughter of the king of Saxony, was the mother of Tibraide Tireach.

According to Keating Genealogies

Fiachu Araide (a quo Dál nAraide) m. Áengus Goibnenn m. Fergus Gallen

From him was named Dál nAraidi. Few modern scholars consider any of the
genealogy before this point historical. Rootsweb

Fiacha Araidhe and the Ui Echach Coba

The Eochaidh from whom the Ui Echach Coba claimed descent is reputed to have been a descendant of Fiacha Araide, ancestor of the Dál nAraide. I have two versions:

Eochu Coba (from whom come the Ui Eatach Coba) son of Crond Badruí son of Eochaid son of Lugaid son of. Ros son of Imchaid son of Feidhlimidh son of Cas, son of Fiachu Araide (Dál n-Araidhe) .Magoo - Ulster Kings

Eachach Cobha, whose father, Fiacha Araidhe, died A.D. 236 The Barony of Iveagh

This is the Tribe of Saint Moluag otherwise known as Lugaid.

Conclusion

1. The Ui Echach Coba and the Dál nAraide descend from Fiacha Araide, ancestor of Moluag
2. Fiach Fearmara is the ancestor of both MacDunshleibe Ua Eochadha, the last kings of Ulaid (the Rigdamnai of the Ulaid) but also of the Dál Riada - the Royal House of Loarn.
3. Byrne states that MacDunshleibe was the last of the Dál Fiatach.
4. The Annals of Ultser state that MacDunshleibe was of the Dál nAraide
5. The Dál nAraide and the Dál Riata were allied.

In other words that by the twelth century the different tribes of the Ulaid were very interconnected.