The Múscraighe (older spelling: Músgraige) were an important

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 ...

people 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 th ...

, descending from

Cairpre Músc Cairbre (Cairpre, Coirpre) is a popular medieval Irish name borne by several historical and mythological figures, including: * Cairbre, son of Ogma, poet and satirist of the Tuatha Dé Danann * Cairbre Nia Fer, legendary king of Tara * Cairbre Cuana ...

, son of

Conaire Cóem Conaire Cóem ("the beautiful"), son of Mug Láma, son of Coirpre Crou-Chend, son of Coirpre Firmaora, son of Conaire Mór, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, the 111th High King of Ireland. He came to power on the d ...

, a High King of Ireland. Closely related were the

Corcu Duibne The Corcu Duibne, which means "seed or tribe of Duibhne" (the name of a goddess), was a notable kingdom in prehistoric and medieval County Kerry, Ireland which included the Dingle Peninsula, the Iveragh Peninsula and connecting lands. The tribe ...

Corcu Baiscind The Corcu Baiscind were an early Érainn people or kingdom of what is now southern County Clare in Munster. They descended from Cairpre Baschaín, son of Conaire Cóem, a High King of Ireland. Closely related were the Múscraige and Corcu Duibne, ...

, both of Munster, and also the

Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is ...

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, all being referred to as the

Síl Conairi The Síl Conairi (Sil Chonairi, Conaire) or "Seed of Conaire" were those Érainn septs of the legendary Clanna Dedad descended from the monarch Conaire Mór, son of Eterscél Mór, a descendant of Deda mac Sin, namely the Dál Riata, Múscraige, ...

in Irish and Scottish legends. A more distant ancestor was the legendary monarch

Conaire Mór Conaire Mór (the great), son of Eterscél, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. His mother was Mess Búachalla, who was either the daughter of Eochu Feidlech and Étaín, or of Eochu Airem ...

, son of Eterscél, son of Íar, son of

Dedu mac Sin Deda mac Sin (Deda, son of Sen) was a prehistoric king of the Érainn of Ireland, possibly of the 1st century BC. Variant forms or spellings include Ded, Dedu, Dedad, Degad, Dega, Dego, Deguth and Daig, with some of these occurring as genitives ...

. While the Múscraige

petty kingdom A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into ...

s were scattered throughout the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, the largest were centred on the present baronies of Muskerry (West and East) in central

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

. The tribes or

septs A sept is a division of a family, especially of a Scottish or Irish family. The term is used in both Scotland and Ireland, where it may be translated as ''sliocht'', meaning "progeny" or "seed", which may indicate the descendants of a person ...

were pre-

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, ...

, that is before the 6th century. At this time, the territory of ''Múscraige Mittaine'' did not extend south of the

River Lee The River Lee (Irish: ''An Laoi'') is a river in Ireland. It rises in the Shehy Mountains on the western border of County Cork and flows eastwards through Cork, where it splits in two for a short distance, creating an island on which Cork' ...

(although the river bisects the current baronies). A pedigree of the chieftains of the tribe may be found in the

Book of Leinster The Book of Leinster ( mga, Lebor Laignech , LL) is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled c. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18 (cat. 1339). It was formerly known as the ''Lebor na Nuachongbála'' "Book ...

.Book of Leinster, Dublin, TCD, MS 1339 (''olim'' MS H 2.18) The main septs were: Importantly, they acted as vassals and facilitators for the rising

. A

King of Munster The kings of Munster ( ga, Rí Mumhan), ruled from the establishment of Munster during the Irish Iron Age, until the High Middle Ages. According to Gaelic traditional history, laid out in works such as the ''Book of Invasions'', the earliest ...

from the Múscraige was

Flaithbertach mac Inmainén Flaithbertach mac Inmainén (died 944) was abbot of ''Inis Cathaig'' ( Scattery Island) and sometime King of Munster in the south of Ireland. Unrelated to the dominant Eóganachta, Flaithbertach belonged to the Múscraige, an Érainn people. ''Ca ...

Notes

References

Francis John Byrne Francis John Byrne (1934 – 30 December 2017) was an Irish historian. Born in Shanghai where his father, a Dundalk man, captained a ship on the Yellow River, Byrne was evacuated with his mother to Australia on the outbreak of World War II. ...

. ''Irish Kings and High-Kings''.

Four Courts Press Four Courts Press is an independent Irish academic publishing house, with its office at Malpas Street, Dublin 8, Ireland. Founded in 1970 by Michael Adams, who died in February 2009, its early publications were primarily theological, notably t ...

. 2nd revised edition, 2001. *

Thomas Charles-Edwards Thomas Mowbray Charles-Edwards (born 11 November 1943) is an emeritus academic at the University of Oxford. He formerly held the post of Jesus Professor of Celtic and is a Professorial Fellow at Jesus College. Biography He was educated at A ...

, ''Early Christian Ireland''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambr ...

. 2000. * Lucius Gwynn
"De Maccaib Conaire"
in ''Ériu 6'' (1912): 144–53. * Lucius Gwynn
"De Sil Chonairi Móir"
in ''Ériu 6'' (1912): 130–43. * Vernam Hull. "The Later Version of the Expulsion of the Déssi", in ''

Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie The ''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' is an academic journal of Celtic studies, which was established in 1897 by the German scholars Kuno Meyer and Ludwig Christian Stern.Busse, Peter E. "''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie''." In ''C ...

27'' (1958-9): 14–63. * Paul MacCotter. ''Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions''. Four Courts Press. 2008. *

Eoin MacNeill Eoin MacNeill ( ga, Eoin Mac Néill; born John McNeill; 15 May 1867 – 15 October 1945) was an Irish scholar, Irish language enthusiast, Gaelic revivalist, nationalist and politician who served as Minister for Education from 1922 to 1925, Ce ...

"Early Irish Population Groups: their nomenclature, classification and chronology"
in ''Proceedings of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier learned society and one its leading cultural i ...

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) ( ga, Institiúid Ard-Léinn Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a statutory independent research institute in Ireland. It was established in 1940 on the initiative of the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, in Dub ...

. 1946. Historical Celtic peoples Érainn Tribes of ancient Ireland {{Ireland-hist-stub