LAIGINThomas’s abbey, Dublin, beside his wife, and his
decapitated corpse being solemnly interred in Bective
abbey, Co. Meath, a dispute only resolved in 1205, in
favor of St. Thomas’s, where all of the remains were
then reunited.
References and Further Reading
Brady, J. “Anglo-Norman Meath.” Riocht na Midhe2 (1961):
38–45.
Bartlett, Robert. “Colonial Aristocracies in the High Middle
Ages.” In Medieval Frontier Societies, edited by R. Bartlett
and A. MacKay. Oxford: 1989.
Graham, B. J. “Anglo-Norman Settlement in County Meath,”
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy75 (1975):
223–248.
Otway-Ruthven, A. J. “The Partition of the de Verdon Lands in
Ireland in 1332.” In J.R.S.A.I.48 (1967):.
Potterton, Michael. “The Archaeology and History of Medieval
Trim, County Meath.” Ph.D. diss., The National University
of Ireland, Maynooth, 2003.
Walsh, Paul. Irish Leaders and Learning Through the Ages.
Edited by Nollaig Ó Muraíle. Dublin: , 2003
Wightman, W. E. The Lacy Family in England and Normandy
1066–1194. 1966.
See alsoHenry II; John; Mide; Strongbow
LAIGIN
Originally an ethnic term, the word “Laigin” refers to
the people who dominated the southeast of Ireland and
gave their name to the province of Leinster (Cóiced
Laigen). Medieval sources closely associate the Laigin
or “Leinstermen” with the Gáileóin and Domnainn, to
whom they were probably related, but regard them as
ethnically distinct from the Ulaid, Connachta, and other
provincial powers. Although reliable information about
their origins and rise to power is lacking, medieval leg-
end suggests that the Laigin came to Ireland from either
Britain or Gaul under the leadership of their ancestor
Labraid Loingsech and seized control of the province
of Leinster some time in the third or fourth century B.C.
By the dawn of the historical period, the Laigin had
split into many separate dynasties and spread through-
out the province. The most powerful of these—dynasties
likethe Uí Garrchon, Uí Enechglais, and Uí Failgi—
lived in the north and vied for control of the Liffey
valley, an area that encompassed Naas, Kildare, and
Dún Ailinne, the symbolic center of their provincial
kingship. During the fifth and sixth centuries, these
dynasties were engaged in territorial wars with the
expanding Uí Néill, to whom they ultimately lost pos-
session of Tara and its environs. Conflicts with this
dynasty would become a recurrent feature of Laginian
history, particularly in the eighth and ninth centuries
as the Uí Néill attempted to assert their suzerainty over
successive kings of Leinster. By the mid-eighth cen-
tury, these conflicts in conjunction with numerous
internal feuds significantly weakened many of the old
northern dynasties such that a new Laginian power
structure arose, one dominated by the Uí Dúnlainge in
the north and the Uí Chennselaig in the south.
From 738 to 1042, the Uí Dúnlainge ruled the Liffey
valley and maintained an exclusive hold on the pro-
vincial kingship. However, by the early decades of the
eleventh century, internal disputes, conflicts with the
Vikings, and invasions by successive kings of Osraige
had crippled the Uí Dúnlainge septs, allowing Uí
Chennselaig to seize power. Before that time, the latter
had enjoyed a measure of independence from Uí
Dúnlainge in their new homeland around Ferns,
though they were wracked by dynastic strife. But
with the Uí Dúnlainge weakened, they seized the
Laigin kingship in 1042 and dominated the province
from that point until the Anglo-Norman Invasion. The
person responsible for their rise to power was Diarmait
mac Máele-na-mbó, who was one of the most powerful
kings in Ireland at his death in 1072. In the early twelfth
century, the ruling family of Uí Chennselaig adopted
the surname Mac Murchada (Mac Murrough), and one
of the first kings to bear it was Diarmait Mac Murchada
(d. 1171), whose arrangement with Henry II made pos-
sible the Anglo-Norman Invasion. Once the English got
control of Leinster, the Mac Murchada family would
enjoy only occasional bouts of power, as they did under
Art Mac Murchada in the late fourteenth century, but
it was not until the late sixteenth century that they were
completely brought to heel.
DANM. WILEYReferences and Further Reading
Byrne, Francis John. Irish Kings and High-Kings. Second Edi-
tion. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001.
Duffy, Seán. Ireland in the Middle Ages. London: Macmillan;
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Mac Niocaill, Gearóid. Ireland Before the Vikings. Dublin: Gill
and Macmillan Ltd, 1972.
Ó Corráin, Donncha. Ireland Before the Normans. Dublin: Gill
and Macmillan Ltd, 1972.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. Early Medieval Ireland 400–1200. London
& New York: Longman Group Ltd, 1995.
O’Rahilly, Thomas F. Early Irish History and Mythology.
Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946.
Ó hUiginn, Ruairí. “The Literature of the Laigin.” Emania 7
(1990): 5–9.
Smyth, Alfred P. Celtic Leinster: Towards an Historical
Geography of Early Irish Civilization A.D. 500–1600. Dublin:
Irish Academic Press Ltd, 1982.
See alsoAnglo-Norman Invasion; Connachta;
Diarmait mac Máele-na-mbó; Leinster; Mac
Murchada; Uí Chennselaig; Uí Dúnlainge; Uí Néill;
Ulaid; Viking Incursions