extensive territories in Tyrone and Armagh. The
numerous Meic Domnaill galloglass in Connacht
(where they appear by the 1360s) and Leinster were
descended from Ragnall’s brother Somairle and the
latter’s son Marcus (d. 1397). From the beginning,
they (with their kinsfolk the MacDowells or meic
Dubgaill) functioned as the galloglass arm of the
faction headed by Mac Uilliam Íchtarach and Ua
Conchobair Ruad, as their rivals the Mac Sweeneys
(Meic Suibhne) were of that led by Mac Uilliam
Uachtarach and Ua Conchobair Donn. From Marcus’s
son Tairrdelbach descended the numerous MacDonnells
of County Mayo. A grandson of Toirdelbach went
toLeinster to serve the “Great Earl” of Kildare as
constable of galloglass, and was ancestor of the Mac-
Donnells of Leinster, who after the fall of the Kildares
in 1534 passed as galloglass into the service of the
English crown.
The other group of MacDonnells in Ireland were
the descendants of John Mór(d. 1422) of Duniveg in
Islay, second son of John of Islay by his wife Margaret
Stewart, daughter of King Robert II of Scotland. As
has been noted, this John has been confused with his
namesake the constable of Ulster. John Mór married
Margery Bisset, heiress of the Glens of Antrim, and
styles himself “lord of Dunevage and the Glynnis” in
his agreement of 1403 with King Henry IV. His
descendants, although entering into Irish marriages,
seem to have been more interested in the affairs of the
Isles than in their Irish lands until John Mór’s grandson
Sir John, having proclaimed himself lord of the Isles,
was captured and executed with his sons by King
James IV in 1496. His grandson, Alexander Mac Eoin
Cathánaig (d. 1536), also seems to have sought the
lordship of the Isles. He must be distinguished from
his uncle and successor, Alexander Carrach(d. after
1542), who may in fact have been ruling the Glens
during his nephew’s lifetime. By the sixteenth century,
MacDonnells of this stock were spreading into other
parts of eastern Ulster, and in Elizabethan times they
were able to take over the entire MacQuillin territory
in north Antrim. The earldom of Antrim was created
for Sir Randal (Ragnall) MacDonnell in 1620.
KENNETH NICHOLLS
References and Further Reading
Nicholls, K. W. “Anglo-French Ireland and after.” Peritia 1
(1982): 386–8.
Schlegel, Donald M. “The MacDonalds of Tyrone and Armagh.”
Seanchas Ardmacha10, no. 1 (1980–1981): 193–219.
Kingson, Simon. Ulster and the Isles in the Fifteenth Cen-
tury:The Lordship of the Clann Domhnaill of Antrim.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004.
Nicholls, Kenneth. “Notes on the Genealogy of Clann Eoin
Mhóir.” West Highland Notes and Queries, ser. 2, no. 8
(1991): 11–24.
MAC FHIR BHISIGH
This family—one of the foremost of the hereditary
learned families that were a feature of late medieval
Gaelic Ireland—produced significant manuscript col-
lections of medieval Irish learning and literature.
Based around Killala Bay in north Connacht, most
notably at Lackan (alias Lecan or Leacán Meic Fhir
Bhisigh), County Sligo, the family may have had an
ecclesiastical background: a son of the family’s epon-
ymous ancestor is associated in his obituary (1138)
with the great monastery of Cong.
In the period 1279–1414, the Irish annals record the
deaths of seven members of the family, all of them
described as noted men of learning. But their foremost
scholar during this early period, Giolla-Íosa, son of
Donnchadh Mór, is strangely missing from the annalistic
record—although there is record of the death, by
drowning, of his wife in 1412.
Giolla-Íosa penned, circa 1392, the principal por-
tion of the composite volume known as the Yellow
Book of Lecan; this manuscript of ninety-nine folios
contains copies of some of the most important trea-
sures of early Irish literature, most notably an almost
complete copy of the early recension of the great Ulster
Cycle tale, Táin Bó Cúalnge. By 1397, Mac Fir Bhisigh
was compiling the codex known as the Book of Lecan.
While Giolla-Íosa had the assistance of three other
scribes at various times over the next two decades,
most of the manuscript is in his hand. Another (much
smaller) manuscript of his—now in the National
Library of Scotland—is extant, and he is also reputed
to have begun compiling, before the year 1397, a col-
lection of annals of which most is now lost. Another
work of his is a lengthy poem composed as an inau-
guration ode for the local chieftain Tadhg Riabhach Ó
Dubhda, who succeeded his brother, Domhnall, in- (Two other long historical poems attributed to
him—and as yet unedited—are preserved in the Book
of Lecan (one is of 94 qq. and the other of 60 qq.).
The date of Giolla-Íosa’s death—like that of his
birth—is unknown. The last contemporary reference
to him occurs in 1418.
A second great scholar belonging to Clann Fhir
Bhisigh was the seventeenth-century genealogist and
scribe, Dubhaltach Óg. He was not a descendant of
Giolla-Íosa Mór—they belonged to different branches
of the family, both based at Lackan—but his grandfather,
also named Dubhaltach, was an accomplished scribe.
Dubhaltach was probably born at Lackan, the eldest
of four brothers. His birth date is not recorded (but
probably circa 1600), and virtually nothing is known
of his early life. He may have received some schooling
in Galway, and more traditional training from the
learned family of Mac Aodhagáin, at Ballymacegan,
County Tipperary. We know that, in addition to his
MAC DOMNAILL (MACDONNELL)