The Deirgtine (Deirgthine, Dergtine, Dergthine), Clanna Dergthened or "Descendants of Dego Dergthened" were the proto-historical ancestors of the historical

Eóganachta The Eóganachta or Eoghanachta () were an Irish dynasty centred on Cashel which dominated southern Ireland (namely the Kingdom of Munster) from the 6/7th to the 10th centuries, and following that, in a restricted form, the Kingdom of Desmond, an ...

dynasties of

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

. Their origins are unclear but they may have been of fairly recent

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium ...

derivation. Some evidence exists for their having been active in

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

History

Legendary figures belonging to the Deirgtine include

Mug Nuadat In Irish mythological history Mug Nuadat (servant of NuadaDictionary of the Iri ...

Ailill Aulom Ailill Ollamh (or Oilill Olum) in Irish traditional history was the son of Mug Nuadat and was a king of the southern half of Ireland, placed in the 3rd century by early modern Irish genealogy. Sadb ingen Chuinn, daughter of Conn of the Hundred Bat ...

Éogan Mór In Irish traditional history Eógan (or Eoghan Mór—a name also used by his grandfather, Mug Nuadat), eldest son of Ailill Ollamh, was a 2nd or 3rd century AD king of Munster. He is credited with founding or at least giving his name to the ...

, and

Fiachu Muillethan Fiachu Muillethan (broad crown) or Fiachu Fer Da Liach (of the two sorrows), son of Éogan Mór, was a legendary king belonging to the Deirgtine, the proto-historical ancestors of the Eóganachta dynasties of Munster. He is known primarily from the ...

. Though literary claims were later made that these early figures were rulers of Munster, their descendants did not in fact gain political supremacy over the established

Dáirine The Dáirine (Dárine, Dáirfine, Dáirfhine, Dárfine, Dárinne, Dairinne), later known dynastically as the Corcu Loígde and associated, were the proto-historical rulers of Munster before the rise of the Eóganachta in the 7th century AD. They ...

Corcu Loígde The Corcu Loígde (Corcu Lóegde, Corco Luigde, Corca Laoighdhe, Laidhe), meaning Gens of the Calf Goddess, also called the Síl Lugdach meic Itha, were a kingdom centred in West County Cork who descended from the proto-historical rulers of Mun ...

until the 7th century AD.Ó Corráin 2001 Among the famous tales from which the Deirgtine are known is the

Cath Maige Mucrama The ''Cath Maige Mucrama'' (in English the Battle of Mag Mucrama) is an early Middle Irish language tale which forms part of the Cycles of the Kings. Content The cast includes several major figures from Irish pseudo-history, Ailill Aulom, his son ...

. While kinship is not asserted, the Deirgtine are known to have had a close political relationship with the

Déisi The ''Déisi'' were a socially powerful class of peoples from Ireland that settled in Wales and western England between the ancient and early medieval period. The various peoples listed under the heading ''déis'' shared the same status in Gaeli ...

of Munster, who may have been their most important early facilitators. The names of several figures from the Deirgtine (Eóganachta) pedigrees are found in

ogham Ogham (Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langua ...

inscriptions in the Déisi country of

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region. It is named ...

. It is also the case that a number of figures, mythological and historical, later thought to belong to the Deirgtine and listed in the Eóganachta pedigrees did in fact belong to the

Érainn The Iverni (, ') were a people of early Ireland first mentioned in Ptolemy's 2nd century ''Geography'' as living in the extreme south-west of the island. He also locates a "city" called Ivernis (, ') in their territory, and observes that this se ...

, but were adopted as ancestors. The earliest reliable ancestor of the Eóganachta and actual founder of the dynasties is

Conall Corc Corc mac Luigthig (340-379),Genealogy of the House of Mac-Carthy formerly Sovereign of the Two Momonies or Southern Ireland, P. Louis Lainé, pg. 26, https://celt.ucc.ie/published/F830000-001.html also called Conall Corc, Corc of Cashel, and Corc ...

Notes

References

* Byrne, Francis John, ''Irish Kings and High-Kings''. Four Courts Press. 2nd revised edition, 2001. *

Donnchadh Ó Corráin Donnchadh Ó Corráin (28 February 1942 – 25 October 2017) was an Irish historian and Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at University College Cork. He earned his BA in history and Irish from that institution, graduating in 1964. He was a ...

, "Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland", in Foster, Roy (ed.), ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland''. Oxford University Press. 2001. pgs. 1-52. {{Eóganachta Historical Celtic peoples Munster Tribes of ancient Ireland

History

See also

Notes

References