Dál Birn

''Dál Birn'' (''"portion" of Birn'') is a tribal epithet found in Irish sources which refers to the descendants of Loegaire Birn Buadach, the hereditary ruling lineage of the kingdom of Osraige in Ireland.

Lineage

This illustrious lineage produced Osraige's native kings and lords- all claimed to be commonly descended on the paternal line from the second-century king Loegaire Birn Buadach (Loegaire Birn "the Victorious"), son of Óengus Osrithe and gave rise to a number of related individuals and later, clans which remained intact and identifiable into the modern era. Yet, the authoritative scholar, T. F. O'Rahilly, considered Loegaire Bern Buadach, the mythical ancestor Dál Birn, was the 'same personage as the Loegaire Buadach of the Ulidian tradition' and, therefore, were not Laigin. The term ''Dál Birn'' was in use long before the advent of surnames in Ireland, yet because of long-standing oral and written traditions in Ireland, it continued to be used as a mark of hereditary distinction in sources composed through the twelfth century after the common advent of surnames.

For a two-hundred year period beginning the late fifth century, the native Dál Birn kings were temporarily displaced by an allied Corcu Loígde dynasty which ruled Osraige until finally being overthrown. A number of the Corcu Loígde kings are recorded as being periodically slain by the native inhabitants of Osraige until the re-establishment of the Dál Birn. Dál Birn descendants remained in control of parts of Osraige, even after the Norman Invasion of Ireland, with the continuation of the Mac Giolla Phádraig lordship in Upper Ossory, and O'Brennan control of Idough.

Sources

The term or its equivalent is found in a number of early and high medieval Irish sources, including ''Codex Salmanticensis'' and '' Codex Kilkenniensis'' in the vitae of St. Ciarán of Saighir; the Félire Óengusso, and in Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 502.

Dál Birn descendants

Lineages

In addition to all the native Ossorian kings (not counting the Corcu Loígde), a number of other notable family names descend from Dál Birn:
* Mac Giolla Phádraig of Osraige, which in the mid-sixteenth century Normanized their surname to Fitzpatrick. From these spring the Barons and Earls of Upper Ossory, Gowran, and Castletown.
* Ua Braonáin (or Ó Braonáin) of Idough, descended from Braonáin, a younger son of Cerball mac Dúnlainge, Anglicized to O'Brennan.

Individuals

* St. Ciarán of Saigir
* St. Nem of Aran

References

External links

HD image of MS Rawlinson B502, fol. 70 v. containing an Ossorian genealogyFitzpatrick - Mac Giolla Phádraig Clan SocietyFitzpatrick Clan Society

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dal Birn
Ancient Irish dynasties
FitzPatrick dynasty
Kings of Osraige
Irish royal families
Gaelic-Irish nations and dynasties