Mac Cairthinn mac Coelboth of the Uí Enechglaiss, King of Leinster, died 446.
Mac Cairthinn is one of the very earliest verifiable Irish kings. Though not listed in any extant Irish genealogies, the Annals of Innisfallen record his death at the battle of Mag Femen in the kingdom of Brega in 446. Almost uniquely, this otherwise unverifiable reference is coroborated by an Ogham inscription on a stone near Slane in the neighbouring County Louth. It reads MAQI CAIRATINI AVI INEQUAGLASI, which translates as [the stone] of Mac Cairthinn grandson [or perhaps descendant] of Enechglass. This would make him a contemporary of Niall Noigíallach.
According to Dáibhí Ó Cróinín the above demonstrates "how far north Leinster's territorial claims once extended" and that warfare between the Laigin and the emerging Uí Néill occoured in the north of Brega and on the plains of what is now County Meath and County Westmeath. All these territories would be lost to the Uí Néill in the following century.
The Irish annals, recording the battle of Mag Femen, say of Mac Cairthinn, "[s]ome say he was of the Cruithni". This appears to be based on the false assumption that his father was the eponymous ancestor of the Dál nAraidi sept of Uí Chóelbad. Other unreliable and late sources may have linked Mac Cairthinn with the Uí Néill, by making his father Cóelbad a son of Niall.
References
- Byrne, Francis John, Irish Kings and High-Kings Batsford, London, 1973. ISBN 0-7134-5882-8
- Charles-Edwards, T.M., Early Christian Ireland, pp. 453–458. ISBN 0-521-36395-0
- Ireland, 400-800, pp.188, by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín A New History of Ireland, Vol.I, ISBN 0 19 821737 4 (edited Ó Cróinín).
External links
- CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork includes: Gein Branduib (original & translation), Annals of Ulster, Annals of Tigernach, Annals of Innisfallen and others.
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