Achaius Moigmedon, King of Ireland (of the line of Heremon), who died at Tara in 365, was the father of the celebrated Nial of the Nine Hostages, from whom the O'Donnells, O'Neills, O'Mulloys, &c., trace their pedigree, while Bryan, the eldest son of that Achaius, and who became king of Connaught, was the prepositus of the Mac Dermots. His son, Duach Galach, was converted by St. Patrick, became the first Christian king of Connaught, and died A. D. 436, as did his successor, Eugenius, in 465, and his son and successor, Muredach Mal, in 489. His successor, Fergus, King of Connaught, was slain in battle in 499, when his son, Achaius, succeeded. He had a brother, Fergna, who was ancestor of the O'Ruarcs of Brefny. Achaius died in 543, and was succeeded by Hugh Abrad, who was slain in battle in 577. Madach succeeded Hugh as King of Connaught; he had a brother, Cuornan, ancestor of the family of O'Flinn. Madach died about the year 601, when Raghallagh inherited the principality of Connaught.

From him descended, through ten generations, Teigue of the Tower, who governed Connaught during 31 years; his eldest son, Conor, was ancestor of the several families of O'Conor Don, O'Conor Roe, and O'Conor Sligo; while his second son, Mulroona Mor, was ancestor of the Clan-Mulroona, comprising the Mac Dermots, the Mac Donoughs, lords of Tyr-Olioll, &c. &c. This Mulroona, or Maolruana, was king of Moylurg, at the time of the battle of Clontarf, in 1014, but too advanced in years to attend there; one of his sons, however, Connor, commanded the sept at that memorable field. On the death of Mulroona, about the year 1020, Murtagh, his eldest son, acquired the principality, or, as it was called, kingdom of Moylurg, and was, in about thirty years afterwards, succeeded by his son Teigue. In 1080, Maolruana, eldest son of Teigue, was chief of the sept; he it was who founded one of the churches at Clonmacnoise, hence called, from him, "Mac Dermot's church," which Archdall notes as having been repaired in 1100, "the shingles, and the lower end of the wall of that great church, being then made good and completed." About the year 1120, Teigue Mor, son of Maolruana, succeeded

his father, and, while the death of a son of his, Maolsechnal, is noticed in the Annals of Boyle, at 1124, he was himself succeeded by his son Dermot, in whom the sirname of Mac Dermot appears to have originated, and who, as the Four Masters record, died in 1159, "supreme councillor, sage, and excellent mediator, of onefifth of Connaught," as did his son, Gilla Crist, in a few months after, having fallen at the battle of Ardee, whereupon, his uncle, Murrough, assumed the government of Moylurg, on the rights, privileges, and immunities of which, a poem, attributed to the year 1160, is extant. In 1169, the fine abbey of Fore was burned by this Murrough, who was himself slain in 1186. Eleven years previous to his death, in a gift of endowment, by Roderic O'Conor, of the lands of Tuam, the witnesses were, Cadhla O'Duffy, Archbishop of Tuam, Hugh Flinn, Ignatius O'Monahan, Conor, the son of Dermot, &c.; this latter Conor, son of the before-mentioned King Dermot, succeeded as chieftain of Moylurg, which he held during ten ensuing years, when he took upon him the Cistercian habit, became a monk in the abbey of Boyle, and there died, and was buried, in 1198; whereupon the government of that district passed to Tumultagh, or Timothy, Mac Dermot, the son of Conor, who, in 1204, erected the original castle on Lough Ke, in two years after which, as recorded by the Four Masters, he died. In 1210, when Cathal O'Conor, sirnamed the Red-handed, met King John at Rathwyre, in the County Meath, and acknowledged fealty to him, he delivered, as hostages for his obedience, four noble youths, one of whom was O'Hara, lord of Leney, and Dermot, a younger brother of Timothy, from whom descended the family of Mac Dermot na Gall. The death of a sister of Timothy, in 1230, will be found recorded in the "Annals of Boyle," ad ann. Timothy himself had two sons, Cormac and Donough; the former, when Moylurg was invaded in 1207, by Cathal Carrach O'Conor, having been joined by Dermid, son of Magnus O'Conor, O'Hara, lord of Leney, O'Dowda, and others, defeated Cathal, took him prisoner, and disqualified him from governing, by depriving him of his sight. Cormac subsequently distinguished himself, in 1236, when Moylurg was again overrun, and the

castle of the rock of Lough Ke was assailed, as stated in the "Annals." He it was also, who, as shewn on the same authority, built the first market-town of Moylurg, at Port-na-Carrig, while his brother, Donough, became the progenitor of the Mac Donoughs, lords of Tyr-Olioll. Cormac died, about the year 1245, a monk in the abbey of Boyle, when his son, Conor, succeeded to Moylurg. In his time, Thomas Mac Dermot, a member of the family, was Archdeacon of Elphin; he died in 1255. Another Thomas, the son of Ferral Mac Dermot, theretofore Abbot of Boyle, was, in 1262, promoted to the bishopric of Elphin; and it is recorded, that he granted indulgences of fifty days to those who would perform pilgrimages to the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin, in the Temple of London, and forty more to those who would, with proper dispositions and preparation, visit the tomb of St. Roger, in St. Paul's, in the same city. About this time, William de Burgo, whose inheritance in Connaught had, during his absence in the wars of France and Scotland, been invaded and re-claimed by the native septs, returned, and, by his valour and the discipline of his adherents, recovered his possessions, slaying in battle Phelim O'Conor, Teigue O'Kelly, and Cormac Mac Dermot, who appears to have been a younger son of the above-mentioned Conor of Moylurg. This Conor was, on his decease, succeeded by his eldest son, Gilcrist, recorded as lord of Moylurg in 1300, while, from his (Conor's) brother, Dermott Ruagh, so called by reason of the colour of his hair, descended the Mac Dermotts Roe, as hereafter mentioned. This Dermott Ruagh was Sheriff of Roscommon in 1307, when he was imprisoned by the English, in the Castle of Roscommon, until released thence by O'Kelly, of HyMaine. On the death of Hugh O'Conor, King of Connaught, in 1309, Mac Dermot, Prince of Moylurg, invited Phelim, son of said Hugh O'Conor, to his castle, where, assembling the chiefs of Connaught, he conducted him thence to the hill of Carnfree, where he inaugurated him King of Connaught, with the usual solemnities. This was the Mac Dermot, who, being closely allied to the Mac Carthys and O'Neills, and, hating the English government, invited Bruce's invasion to free Ireland from its rulers.

On the arrival of the Scottish chief, Mac Dermot joined his standard, and, while these allies were, with a large body of the O'Conors, devastating the Pale, Rory Mac Cahil Roe O'Conor laid waste various parts of Connaught, after which he required Mac Dermot to give him the duties due upon him as belonging to the royal revenue of Connaught, and thus to acknowledge him as king of that province; Mac Dermot, however, refused to comply with his request, or to give hostages on demand(a).

In 1316, at the memorable battle of Athenry, amongst the Irish chiefs who fell fighting against William de Burgo, the Lord Bermingham, and others of the English, were Magnus Mac Dermot O'Conor, Tanist of Connaught; Art O'Hara, Prince of Leney; Dermot Mac Dermot, Tanist of Moylurg; Murtough, son of Taithleach Mac Dermot, &c., &c. In 1331, Maolruana Mac Dermot, who was the son of Gilcrist of 1300, Lord of Moylurg, resigned his Lordship, and took upon him, in the Abbey of Boyle, the habit of the order, when he was succeeded by his son Timothy. In 1342, the before-mentioned Dermott Ruagh, died a Cistercian monk, in the Abbey of Boyle. In 1347, William, son of John de Barry, Milo Courcy, and John Winchedon, were empowered "for the melioration of peace," to treat with and reform, by the best attainable means, Mac Dermot and his men(b). In 1380, Manus Mac Dermott, the lineal descendant of Dermott Ruagh, died Abbot of the religious fraternity on Trinity island, in Lough Ke, while another member of this line, Malachias Mac Dermott Roe, founded, in 1385, the Dominican Abbey of Clonshanville. In 1394, Turlogh Roe O'Conor, the son of Hugh, and grandson of Phelim, was supported in his claims to the sovereignty of Connaught, against Turlogh Don O'Conor, by Mac Dermott, of Moylurg, and O'Ruarc, of Breffny, when the chiefs, who could influence the election, decided to divide Connaught between the two cousins, Turlogh Roe and Turlogh Don, a distinction and division which much impeded the subsequent pre-eminence of the O'Conor dynasty. Hugh Mac Dermot was at this time

(a) Annals of Clonmacnoise.

(b) Roll in Berm. Tur.

accounted chief of Moylurg, and a poem in his praise and that of his territory, composed about 1395, by Ainglioch O'Donnellan, his chief poet, is yet extant. In 1398, Ferral Mac Dermot, Lord of Moylurg, plundered the Abbey of Boyle; he was the eldest son of Timothy, mentioned at 1331, and had a brother, Conor Mac Dermot, who was ancestor of the Mac Dermots of the Rock. In 1419, Timothy Mac Dermot, described as "heir apparent to the sovereignty or lordship of Moylurg," was one of the chiefs who attended Malachy O'Kelly, of Hy-Maine, in an expedition against de Burgo; he was the eldest son of the above Ferral, of 1398, but never succeeded to the inheritance, having died in his father's life-time; and, as the issue of his next brother, Maolruana, became extinct, Moylurg principality passed to the descendants of Gilcrist Mac Dermot, an uncle of the said Ferral. While the inheritance was in this line, occurred the Parliament of Elizabeth in 1585, when Teigue, the son of Hugh Oge, being Tanist, and very old, sent his relative "of the Rock," viz., Bryan, son of Rory, son of Teigue, son of Rory Oge, who was the great-grandson of Conor, the founder of that line, as his representative at that first Irish National Assembly. This Teigue's line also became afterwards extinct, and the dynasty passed to the Mac Dermots of the Rock. In the intervening years, however, occur the following family notices: In 1444, Thady, son of Thady Mac Dermott Roe, Abbot of Roscommon, died at Rome, whither he had accompanied the Bishop of Elphin on a pilgrimage. In 1458, Timothy, son of Conor, son of Hugh Mac Dermot (which Hugh was brother of the aforesaid Ferral of 1398), was interred in the Abbey of Boyle, and at the close of this century Teigue Dubh O'Kelly, of Gallagh, intermarried with Una, daughter of the Mac Dermot; in consequence of which connexion, when, in 1504, after De Burgo, of Clanrickard, had invaded O'Kelly, and the Lord Deputy, espousing the cause of the latter, had led a strong force into Connaught, O'Kelly was powerfully supported by, amongst others, O'Conor Roe and Mac Dermot of Moylurg. In 1548, Dermod O'Conor sallied out of his own district at the head of a party, accompanied by Mac Dermot, of Moylurg, against "the