The Clan Colla

In Sect 9 of the Paper No. 100 in the Appendix No. I., headed “Provincial Kings,” which contains a Return of “The Kings of Ulster before the Advent of St. Patrick to Ireland,” the names of the Kings of that province are given, down to Saraan, the last king of Ulster of the Irian race; and it is there mentioned that the Three Collas, with the Heremonian power of Leinster and Connaught, invaded Ulster, conquered the country, and there formed for themselves and their posterity, the Kingdom of Orgiall (latinized Orgallia), sometimes called Oriel, and Uriel.

The Three Collas were, as already mentioned, the sons of Eochy Dubhlen, who was the son of Carbry Liffechar, the 117th Monarch of Ireland. To the exclusion of this Eochy, his younger brother, who was named Fiacha Srabhteine, attained to the Monarchy as the 120th Monarch. With the view to restore the succession in their own line, the Three Collas waged war against Fiacha Srabhteine, in his thirty-seventh year’s reign, and slew him in the battle of Dubhcomar, A.D. 322, when Colla Uais, ascended the throne, as the 121st Monarch, who A.D. 326, was deposed by his successor in the Monarchy, namely, Muredach Tireach, son of Fiacha Srabhteine. This Muredach then banished to Scotland the Three Collas and their principal chiefs, to the number of three hundred; but through the influence of the King of Alba, and the mediation of the Druids, they were afterwards pardoned by the Irish Monarch, who cordially invited them to return to Ireland, and received them into great favour.[1]

Ostensibly to avenge an insult offered to their great ancestor, Cormac-Mac-Art, the 115th Monarch of Ireland, by Fergus Dubh-Dheadach, himself also of the Heremonian line, and the predecessor of Cormac in the Monarchy, the Irish Monarch moved the Three Collas to invade Ulster; and he promised them all the assistance in his power. Accordingly the Collas collected a powerful army; and joined by numerous auxiliaries, and seven catha (cath: Irish, a battalion of three thousand soldiers; cath: Chald: a battalion) or legions of the Firvolgian or Firbolg tribes of Connaught, marched into Ulster to wrest from its kings the sovereignty of that kingdom. Saraan assembled his forces to oppose them; and, both armies having met, they fought seven battles, in which the Collas were victorious; but the youngest brother, Colla Meann, fell on the side of the victors. These engagements were called Cath-na-ttri-gColla, or the Battles of the Three Collas.[2]

The Collas having overthrown the natives, slain their king, sacked burned, and destroyed the regal city of Eamhain (or Emania[3]), thereby possessed themselves of a great portion of Ireland; but soon after, the Monarch Niall of the Nine Hostages conquered that part of Ulster known as the “Kingdom of Aileach,” of one part of which his son Eoghan or Owen, and of the other portion, his son, Conall Gulban, were the first princes of the Hy-Niall sept.

From the Three Collas descended many noble families in Ulster, Connaught, Meath, and Scotland; the families descended from them were known as the “Clan Colla.”

The following were among the principal families of the chiefs and tribes of this race:—The Agnews, Alexanders, Boylans, Cassidys, chiefs of Coole; Connollys, chiefs in Fermanagh; Corry; Devin, lords of Fermanagh; Duffy, Hale, Hanratty (anglicised “Enright”); Keenan, chiefs in Fermanagh; Kearn, Kieran; Leahy, chiefs in Hy-Maine—a territory in Galway and Roscommon; MacAllister, MacArdle; MacCabe, chiefs of Monaghan, and Cavan; MacCann, lords of Clanbrassil; MacClean; MacDonald and MacDonnell, lords of the Hebrides; MacDonnell, of Antrim; MacDonnell, of Clankelly, in Fermanagh; MacDougald, MacDougall, and MacDowell; MacEvoy,[4] MacVeagh, and MacVeigh (the anglicised forms of the ancient MacUais) who were distinguished chieftains in the territory now known as the barony of “Moygoish,” in the county Westmeath; MacGilfinan, lords of Pettigoe: MacGilmichael or Mitchell; MacGilmore; chiefs in Down and Antrim; MacKenna, chiefs of Truagh in Monaghan; MacMahon, princes of Monaghan, lords of Farney, and barons of Dartry, at Conagh, where they held their chief seat (The MacMahons were sometimes styled Princes of Orgiall, and several of them changed their names “to Matthews”); MacManus, chiefs in Fermanagh; MacOscar and MacOsgar (anglicised MacCusker and Cosgrave), who, according, to O’Dugan, possessed a territory called Fearra Rois (signifying the “Men of Ross”), which comprised the district of Magheross about the town of Carrickmacross, in the county Monaghan, with the parish of Clonkeen, adjoining, in the county Louth; MacTully, and MacGrath, chiefs in Fermanagh; MacNeny (anglicised “Bird”), MacRory (anglicised “Rogers”), MacSheehy; Madden, lords of Siol Anmcha or Silancha, which ancient territory comprised the present barony of Longford, in the county Galway, and the parish of Lusmagh on the other (Leinster) side of the river Shannon, near Banagher, in the King’s County; Magee, chiefs in Down and Antrim; Maguire, princes and lords of Fermanagh, and barons of Enniskillen; Muldoon (anglicised “Meldon”), chiefs of Lurg; Mullally and Lally, Naghtan and Norton, chiefs in Hy-Maine; Neillan; O’Carroll, princes of Oriel or Louth; O’Flanagan, lords of Tura, in Fermanagh; O’Hanlon, lords of Orior, in Armagh, and Royal standard bearers of Ulster; O’Hart, princes of Tara, lords of Teffia, and chiefs in Sligo; O’Kelly, princes and lords of Hy-Maine; O’Neny, Rogers, Saunderson, Sheehy, etc. The MacQuillians, powerful chiefs in Antrim, are considered to have been of the race of Clan Colla, and, like the MacAllisters, MacCleans, McDonalds, and MacDonnells of Antrim, MacDowells, MacElligotts (anglicised “Elliotts”), etc., to have come from Scotland.

The Sheehys and MacSheehys were great commanders of gallow-glasses[5] (or heavy armed troops) in Ulster, and also in Leinster, and Munster.

The territory conquered by the Collas in Ulster obtained the name “Orgiall,” from the circumstance of their having, for themselves and their posterity, stipulated with the Monarch, that if at any time any princes or chiefs of the Clan Colla should be demanded as hostages, and if shackled, their fetters should be chains of gold[6] (hence, from the Irish word “Or” [ore], French “or,” Lat. “aur-um,” gold: Irish, “ghial,” a hostage, came the name “Orgiall.”

After its conquest by the Collas, the Kingdom of Orgiall, or, as it was still generally called, the Kingdom of Ulster, comprised the extensive territory which includes the present counties of Louth, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Armagh, Tyrone, Londonderry, Antrim, Down, Donegal, and parts of Antrim, Cavan and Meath; but, by conquest, and sub-division amongst some of the Princes and Chiefs of Clan Colla, the “Kingdom of Orgiall” ceased to exist; and the “Kingdom of Ulster” was, in after ages, limited to Dalaraida or Ulidia—a territory comprising the present county Down and part of Antrim. By Ware, Ussher, Colgan, and other Latin writers, the Kingdom of Orgiall was called Orgallia and Ergallia; and by the English Oriel,[7] and Uriel. The latter terms, however, were afterwards, in general, confined by the English to the present county Louth (latinized “Lovidia”), which was called “O’Carroll’s Country;” and which, after it was constituted a county, A.D. 1210, formed part of the English Pale. Thus, Louth was comprised in the ancient Kingdom of Ulster, which extended as far south as the Boyne at Drogheda,[8] and Slane.

The ancestor of the O’Carrolls of Oriel was Carroll, brother of Eochy, who was father of St. Donart. This Eochy being an obstinate Pagan, opposed the Apostle; who, on that account, prophesied that the sceptre would pass from him to his brother Carroll, above mentioned. And the O’Carroll’s continued Kings of Oriel or Louth, down to the twelfth century when they were dispossessed by the Anglo-Normans, under John de Courcy.[9] In co-operation with St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh in the twelfth century, Donoch O’Carroll, Prince of Oriel, the last celebrated chief of this family, founded, A.D. 1142, and amply endowed the great Abbey of Mellifont, in the county Louth.

Uladh [Ula] was the ancient name of the entire province of Ulster, but after its conquest by the Three Collas, that name (latinized “Ulidia”) was applied to that portion of the east of Ulster, bounded on the west by the Lower Bann and Lough Neagh, and by Glionn (or Glen) Righe [ree] now the glen or vale of the Newry river; through which an artificial boundary (from Newry upwards) still in tolerable preservation, was formed, now called “The Danes’ Cast,” but known in Irish by the name of Gleann Na Muice Duibhe, signifying “The Valley of the Black Pigs.” That eastern portion of Ulster, now known as the county Down and part of the county Antrim, constituted the “Kingdom of Ulster,” in the twelfth century; and it is to that territory that the Irish annalists who have written in Latin apply the name Ulidia, while they mean “Ultonia,” to denote all Ulster.

In the ancient Ecclesiastical divisions of Ireland, the territory of “Orgiall” was comprised within the ancient diocese of Clogher. In early times there were bishops’ sees at Clones and Louth, which were afterwards annexed to Clogher; and, in the early writers, the bishops of Clogher were frequently styled bishops of Orgiall and of Ergallia. Thus, it would appear that, after the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, Clogher, as being the chief seat of government of the Kings of Clan Colla, was, for some time the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ulster; and that, although the see of Armagh was founded by St. Patrick, it was not until the Kings of Clan Colla were, by conquest, deprived of Clogher, that Armagh, another of their seats of government, became the premier see of Ulster. In the thirteenth century, the county Louth was separated from Clogher, and added to the diocese of Armagh; where, according to the “Tripartite Life of St. Patrick,” the first site for a church was granted to the Apostle of Ireland by a Pagan chieftain named Dairé or Darius, a prince of Orgiall, and a descendant of Colla-da-Chrioch, the first King of Ulster, of the line of Clan Colla.

In St. Bernard’s “Life of St. Malachy,” Archbishop of Armagh in the twelfth century, it is stated (see Colgan’s Trias Thaum., pages 801-2) that the Clan Colla or Orgialla would not allow any bishop among them except one of their own family; that they had carried this through fifteen generations; and that they had claimed the see of Armagh, and maintained possession of it for two hundred years, claiming it as their indubitable birthright. And O’Callaghan writes that the Primacy of Armagh, “the Rome of Ireland,” as he calls it, was a “vested interest in one family of the race between the tenth and twelfth centuries, for nearly two hundred years.”

While entertaining the greatest respect and veneration for any dictum of St. Bernard, we may be permitted to offer a few observations on the subject. De mortuis nihil nisi bonum.

If the Clan Colla recognized no ecclesiastical authority outside their own episcopacy, it is easy to understand that, possessing the civil power, they selected their bishops from their own family; for, what more natural than that the dignitary who possesses supreme ecclesiastical authority in any country will advance to the episcopate a member of his own family, in preference to a stranger: the more so, if the temporalities of the sees over which he has ecclesiastical jurisdiction were the rich endowments of his ancestors.

On the other hand, if the bishops of Clan Colla recognized ecclesiastical authority outside their own episcopacy, then the allegations imply that, without the sanction of that ecclesiastical authority, the bishops of that race did, for fifteen generations, enter into, and keep, possession of their sees. If this were so, we should indeed admit that the bishops of Clan Colla were guilty of gross contumacy; for, without taking into account the “nearly two hundred years” during which, it is alleged, the Clan Colla had claimed the see of Armagh, and maintained possession of it, claiming it as their indubitable birthright, the “fifteen generations” above mentioned embraced all the generations from the advent of St. Patrick to Ireland, A.D. 432, down to the eleventh century, or, from Crimthann Liath, who was King of Ulster at the time of that advent, down to Maelruanaidh: these two personages of the race of Clan Colla being, respectively (see pp. 670-672, Vol. I.), Nos. 89 and 104 on our family pedigree.

If, then, for six hundred years or fifteen consecutive generations the bishops of Clan Colla were disobedient to superior ecclesiastical authority, or, what is the same thing, contumacious, it is difficult to see how and by whom any of them were ever canonized; for, we find that some of the bishops of that once illustrious race lived and died in the odour of sanctity.

The Four Masters record thirty-nine saints as descended from the Three Collas: namely, nineteen from Colla-da-Chrioch; sixteen from Colla Uais; and four from Colla Meann. Of these saints some were virgins, some were bishops, some were abbots; but at all times the abbots ranked as bishops in Ireland. The following were the nineteen saints descended from Colla-da-Chrioch:

1. St. Begg (1st August)
2. St. Brughach (1st Nov.)
3. St. Curcach, virgin
4. St. Daimhin (or Damin), abbot of Devenish Abbey (see page 189), on Devenish Island, Lough Erne.
5. St. Defraoch, virgin.
6. St. Donart.
7. St. Duroch, virgin.
8. St. Enna of Aaron (21st Mar.)
9. St. Baodan (5th Feb.)
10. St. Fergus (29th March)
11. St Fiachra (2nd May)
12. St. Flann Feabhla (20th April)
13. St. Lochin, virgin.
14. St. Loman of Loughgill (4th Feb.)
15. St. Maeldoid (13th May)
16. St. Mochaomog.
17. St. Muredach (15th May)
18. St. Neassa, virgin.
19. St. Tegan (9th Sept.)

Perhaps, however, the allegations above mentioned referred to the “erenachs” and “comorbans;” for, the erenachs, who were sometimes in holy orders, were persons employed to farm the property, or collect the revenue of ecclesiastics: thus, St. Malachy was his own erenach; while comorban was a term applied to the successor of a bishop or abbot, and to him belonged the cathedral church, the tithes, and temporalities. Originally, the comorban was in holy orders; but, in after times lay usurpers, of course without orders, were called comorbans: because they succeeded to the temporalities enjoyed by the bishop or abbot.

“When,” says Malone, “a chief or prince founded a religious house, or procured the consecration of a bishop for a certain church, he richly endowed the house or cathedral, and gave the lands free from tribute … In process of time, influenced by avarice or irreligion, the descendants of the pious and munificent founders seized on the donations of their ancestors. Services of a spiritual kind were attached to these possessions. Sometimes the comorban in the usurping family was consecrated; and thus was fit to fulfil the conditions on which the pious donations were made. Very often the comorban, being a layman, got a minister for a mere trifle to discharge the spiritual functions necessarily annexed to the temporalities. Together with the temporalties he often kept the tithes … The comorbans claimed the title of successors to the founders of churches, whether abbots or bishops. They bore the same relation to the whole diocese, that the erenach did to particular districts in that diocese.”—Malone’s Church History of Ireland.

Notes

[1] Great Favour: In O’Donovan’s Four Masters, under the year A.D. 327, it is stated—

The mistake may be thus accounted for: 1. In some of the Irish Annals Fergus Fogha, No. 46, instead of Saraan, No.48, on the list of Kings of Ulster, in the Pre-Christian Era (see “Provincial Kings of Ireland,” in the Appendix No. I.), is mentioned as the last Irian King of Ulster; and 2. The person who made the transcript in which A.D. 327 is given as the year in which the Three Collas returned to Ireland, may (the digits are so nearly alike) have taken that year for A.D. 357—the year of the accession to the Monarchy of Eochy Moyvane, son of Muredach Tireach. In either case, if the date assigned in the Roll of the Monarchs of Ireland for the death of the 123rd Monarch—namely, A.D. 357, be correct, then the conquest of Ulster by the Three Collas could not have taken place before that year—the year in which Caolbadius, Saraan’s father, was slain by his successor in the Monarchy.

[2] The Battles of the Three Collas: According to O’Donovan, one of those battles was fought in Fearnmagh, now the barony of “Farney,” in the county Monaghan. Another of the battles was fought at a place called Fearnmagh (or Fernmoy) in Dalaradia or Ulidia; and the place is now known as the parish of Aghaderg, in the barony of Iveagh, in the county Down, on the borders of Antrim and Armagh. This battle was called Cath-Cairn-Eocha-Lethdearg or Cath-Cairn-Aghaladerg, signifying the battle commemorated by the cairn raised in honour of Eocha, who was styled Lethdearg; and, in proof of the correctness of the name, there was, until lately, there a great heap of stones (or cairn) at Drummillar, near Loughbrickland, which pointed out the place where the (cath or) battle was fought, in which Eocha Lethdearg fell; the name “Eocha-Lethdearg” being, in course of time, contracted to Aghaladerg, and more lately to Aghaderg; but this heap of stones, or cairn, is now levelled, and the spot where it stood forms part of the Banbridge and Scarva Railway Line. As “Eochy” was the first name of Colla Meann, who fell in that battle, it may be inferred that he was the Eochy to whose memory Cairn-Eocha, here mentioned, was raised; and the epithet “leathdearg” signifying half red, it may be also inferred that, from the wounds he received in the battle before he was slain, he was half covered with blood: hence, perhaps, the name “Eochy Lethdearg.”

The old Annals state that, so great was the slaughter in that memorable battle, the earth was covered with dead bodies, from Cairn Eocha to Glenrighe [Glenree], now the vale of the Newry river—a distance of about ten miles!—Book of Rights.

[3] Emania: Immediately after their victory, the Collas proceeded to the palace of Emania (in Irish, “Eamhain Macha”), the seat of royalty of the Irian kings, which they burned to the ground: so that it never after became the habitation of any of the Ultonian kings; but, though that famous palace afterwards lay in a state of desertion, it is occasionally referred to in the Annals of Ireland as the chief residence of the kings of Orgiall. Their chief residence, however, was at Clogher, in the county Tyrone, which was once a great seat of Druidism.

According to Colgan, in his Trias Thaumaturga, there were in his time (A.D, 1647) extensive remains of Emania; whose site is about two miles westward of Armagh, near the river Callan, at a place called Navan Hill.

According to Joyce, the remains of Emania at present consist of a circular wall or rampart of earth with a deep fosse, enclosing about eleven acres, within which are two smaller circular forts. The great rath is still known by the name of the Navan Fort, in which the original name is curiously preserved. The proper Irish form is Eamhain, which is pronounced aven, “Emania” being merely a latinized form. The Irish article an, contracted as usual to n, placed before the word, makes it nEamhain, the pronounciation of which is exactly represented by the word “Navan.”

The Red Branch Knights of Ulster, so celebrated in our early romances, and whose renown has descended to the present day, flourished in the first century, and attained their greatest glory in the reign of Connor MacNessa. They (like the Fiana Eireann elsewhere mentioned in these pages) were a kind of militia in the service of their king, and received their name from residing in one of the houses of the palace of Emania, called Craobh Ruadh [Creeveroe] or the Red Branch, where they were trained in valour and feats of arms. The name of this ancient military college is still preserved in that of the adjacent townland of Creeveroe: and thus has descended through another medium, to our own time, the echo of those old heroic days.—Irish Names of places.

[4] MacEvoys: Several other noble tribes known as the “Ui-mic-Uais” [ee-mic-oosh], signifying the descendants of the noble, were, like these families, descended from the Monarch Colla Uais.

The youngest of the Three Collas, who was named Colla Meann, was father of Mughdorn or Mourne, from whom was named the ancient district of Crioch-Mughdorn or Cree-Mourne, i.e. the (crioch or) country of the people called Mughdorna. The name of that ancient district is preserved in the word “Cremorne,” the name of a barony in the county Monaghan.—Irish Names of places.

[5] Galloglasses: The Irish Galloglach wore a defensive coat studded with iron nails; a long sword was by his side; an iron head-piece secured his head; and in his hand he grasped a broad keen-edged sword.

[6] Chains of Gold: According to O’Donovan, when the hostage took an oath, that is, as the prose has it, swore by the hand of the king, that he would not escape from his captivity, he was left without a fetter; but if he should afterwards escape, he then lost his caste, and was regarded as a perjured man. Whenever hostages of the Clan Colla were fettered, golden chains were used for the purpose: hence, they were called “Orgiallans” or “Orghialla,” i.e. of the golden hostages. It is stated that the King of the Clan Colla was entitled to sit by the side of the Monarch of Ireland, but that all the rest were the length of his hand and sword from him.—Book of Rights.

[7] Oriel: The O’Carrolls were princes of Oriel down to the Anglo-Norman invasion; but many of them were Kings of Ulidia or Ulster, in the early ages. Some writers say they were of the Dal Fiatach family, who were of the race of Heremon, descended from Fiatach Fionn, the 103rd Milesian Monarch of Ireland; but (see No. 90, p. 189) these O’Carrolls were of the Clan Colla. Dugald MacFirbis, in his pedigrees of the Irish families, says, that “the Dal-Fiatachs, who were old kings of Ulster, and blended with the Clan-na-Rorv, were hemmed into a narrow corner of the province, by the race of Conn of the Hundred Battles, i.e. the Orghialla and Hy-Niall of the north; and that even this narrow corner was not left to them (MacFirbis here alludes to the obtrusion of the Clanaboy branch of the O’Neill family, who subdued almost the entire of Ulidia), so that they had nearly been extinguished, except a few of them who had left the original territory.” And MacFirbis says “this is the case with the Gael of Ireland in this year of our Lord, 1666; but,” he adds, “God is wide in a strait.” It must be remembered, however, writes O’Donovan, that the Dalfiatach tribes had sent forth numerous colonies or swarms, who settled in various parts of Ireland, as the seven septs of Laeighis (or Leix), in Leinster, etc.—Book of Rights.

[8] Drogheda: The chief town of the county Louth was in Irish called Droichead-Atha, signifying the Bridge of the Ford. Droichead-Atha has been anglicised “Drogheda,” and latinized “Pontana” (pons: Lat., driochead: Irish, a bridge); but the name, as originally anglicised, was “Tredagh,” which is evidently a corruption of the Irish word “Droichead.”

[9] John de Courcy: Of the Anglo-Norman leaders in Ireland, John de Courcy was the most renowned. He was descended from the Dukes of Lorraine in France; and his ancestor came to England with William the Conqueror. He was a man of great strength, of gigantic stature, and indomitable courage. Holingshed says: De Courcy was mighty of limb and strong of sinews, very tall and broad in proportion, a most valiant soldier, the first in the field and the foremost in the fight, a noble and right valiant warrior.” Champion in his Chronicle says of him: “John de Courcy was a warrior of noble courage, and in pitch of body like a giant.” It is remarked that in private life he was modest and religious.

Holinshed states that De Courcy rode on a white horse, and had three eagles painted on his standards, to fulfil a prophecy made by Merlin—“that a knight riding on a white horse and bearing birds on his shield should be the first of the English who, with force of arms, would enter and conquer Ulster.” De Courcy and his forces subjugated a great part of Orgiall, together with Ulidia; and had his chief castle at Downpatrick. He was married to Africa, daughter of Godred, King of the Isle of Man; and was created Earl of Ulster by King Henry the Second. After various contests with his great rivals the De Lacys, lords of Meath, he was at length overcome, taken prisoner, and banished from Ireland: he died an exile in France, A.D. 1210. The De Courcys, his successors in Ireland, were created barons of Kinsale, and in consideration of the fame of their ancestors, were allowed the peculiar privilege of wearing their hats in the royal presence—a right which the baron of Kinsale exercised on the occasion of George the Fourth’s visit to Ireland, A.D. 1821.—Connellan.