Mac Cairthinn mac Coelboth (?-446?-530?) was an

Uí Enechglaiss The Ui Enechglaiss were a dynasty attested in 5th-century Ireland, who provided some of the early kings of Laigin. Background The dynasty were initially based on the plains of Kildare around Naas, (Devane, 2005, believes that they were based ...

King of Leinster The kings of Leinster ( ga, Rí Laighín), ruled from the establishment of Leinster during the Irish Iron Age, until the 17th century Early Modern Ireland. According to Gaelic traditional history, laid out in works such as the ''Book of Invasion ...

Background

Mac Cairthinn is one of the very earliest verifiable Irish kings. Though not listed in any extant Irish genealogies, the

Annals of Innisfallen Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

record his death at the battle of Mag Femen in the kingdom of Brega in 446. Almost uniquely, this otherwise unverifiable reference is corroborated by an

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 langu ...

inscription on a stone near

Slane Slane () is a village in County Meath, in Ireland. The village stands on a steep hillside on the left bank of the River Boyne at the intersection of the N2 ( Dublin to Monaghan road) and the N51 (Drogheda to Navan road). As of the 2016 cen ...

in the neighbouring County Louth. It reads MAQI CAIRATINI AVI INEQAGLAS, which translates as '' he stoneof Mac Cairthinn grandson r perhaps descendantof Enechglass.'' This would make him a contemporary of Niall Noigíallach. The Irish annals, recording the battle of Mag Femen, say of Mac Cairthinn, " me say he was of the Cruithni". This appears to be based on the false assumption that his father was the

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ancestor of the

Dál nAraidi Dál nAraidi (; "Araide's part") or Dál Araide, sometimes Latinised as Dalaradia or Anglicised as Dalaray,Boyd, Hugh AlexanderIrish Dalriada ''The Glynns: Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society''. Volume 76 (1978). was a Cruthin kin ...

sept 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 ...

of Uí Chóelbad. Other unreliable and late sources may have linked Mac Cairthinn with the Uí Néill, by making his father Cóelbad a son of Niall.

Early historic Leinster

According to

Dáibhí Ó Cróinín Dáibhí Iarla Ó Cróinín (born 29 August 1954) is an Irish historian and authority on Hiberno-Latin texts, noted for his significant mid-1980s discovery in a manuscript in Padua of the "lost" Irish 84-year Easter table. Ó Cróinín was Prof ...

the above demonstrates "how far north Leinster's territorial claims once extended" and that warfare between the

Laigin The Laigin, modern spelling Laighin (), were a Gaelic population group of early Ireland. They gave their name to the Kingdom of Leinster, which in the medieval era was known in Irish as ''Cóiced Laigen'', meaning "Fifth/province of the Leinster ...

and the emerging

Uí Néill The Uí Néill (Irish pronunciation: ; meaning "descendants of Niall") are Irish dynasties who claim descent from Niall Noígíallach (Niall of the Nine Hostages), a historical King of Tara who died c. 405. They are generally divided into t ...

occurred in the north of Brega and on the plains of what is now

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the ...

and County Westmeath. All these territories would be lost to the Uí Néill in the following century.

Date of Cath Mag Femen

The date of the battle of Mag Femen is given as 446 in the Annals of Ulster and 447 in the

Annals of Inisfallen Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

. However, Devane (p. 189, 2005) proposes that the date has been misplaced, as a result of ''"the original source of the entries being wrongly entered by one, if not indeed two, cycles in the Irish 84-year cycle, by the which the Irish and British churches until the sixth century reckoned the date of

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

. A discrepancy of one calendar cycle would push the date of the battle of Femen forward to the year 530, which ... would lend weight to the argument that it was the son or sons of Coirpre, and not Coirpre himself who defeated the Ui Enechglaiss at the battle of Femen."''

References

* Byrne, Francis John, ''Irish Kings and High-Kings'' Batsford, London, 1973. * Charles-Edwards, T.M., ''Early Christian Ireland'', pp. 453–458. * ''Ireland, 400-800'', pp. 188, by

''A New History of Ireland'', Vol.I, (edited Ó Cróinín). * ''Carbury, Co. Kildare - topographical and onomastic hypotheses'', Caitriona Devane, in ''Above and beyond:Essays in memory of Leo Swan'', pp. 187–122, edited by Tom Condit and Christiaan Corlett, Wordwell, 2005. .

External links

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one ...

includes
Gein Branduib
(original & translation), Annals of Ulster, Annals of Tigernach, Annals of Innisfallen and others. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Cairthinn mac Coelboth Kings of Leinster 446 deaths 530 deaths People from County Kildare 5th-century Irish monarchs 6th-century Irish monarchs Year of birth unknown