My Genealogy Home Page:Information about Loarn Mor macMuireadaigh
Loarn Mor macMuireadaigh (d. 474)
Notes for Loarn Mor macMuireadaigh:
Kings of Dalriada
The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Dalriada were the Scots, who migrated from Ireland to Scotland in the fifth century AD and gave the country its name. The name "Scotti" was generic for the Irish people as a whole. The actual tribal name of these Irish invaders to Scotland in the fifth century were the "Dal-Reti", who were a tribe of the Irish "Erinioi" ["Erneans"], who were themselves a major tribe in Ulster from ancient times.
Towards the end of the fifth century AD, in AD 474 [or 498], the three sons of King Eiric of the Irish tribe Dal-Reti in Ulster [descended from the kings of Ierne, an ancient Irish kingdom], namely, Fergus "Mor" Mac Erc, Loarn, and Oengus, led a colony of the Irish Dal-Reti from Antrim County, Ulster, to Argyllshire, Scotland, where they founded a small settlement on the fringe of what was then Pictish territory. Fergus "Mor" Mac Erc built a fortress at Dunadd, which came to be capital city of Dalriada. This settlement was originally an extension of the Irish Kingdom of Dalriada in Ulster, Ireland, which then straddled both sides of the North Channel [the thirteen miles of the Atlantic Ocean which separates Ireland and Scotland at their nearest points], but after 575 the territories of the Scots in Ireland were formally subjective to the Kings of Ireland, yet still yielded tribute to the Scottish kings, that is, until 637 when all Scottish claims to their Irish territories were abandoned following a series of wars between the Scots and the Irish Gaels. After that, the kings of Dalriada who had until then lived peacefully as neighbors of the Picts turned their policy of expansion against the Scottish natives and obtained territories in Scotland by force or treaty from the Picts. And, after more than 300 years of almost constant warfare, with numerous setbacks, the Scots overcame the Picts, who were also under attack by the Gaels, Angles, and Danes, and forged a new nation, that is, the Kingdom of Scotland, in 844.
The Kingdom of Dalriada was divided into three major communities, each of which was based on a clan called a "cenel". These three cenels were the three founding clans of Dalriada, which were: (a) the Cenel nGabrain, so-called after Fergus Mor's grandson Gabrain, whose descendants, the royal clan, held sway over Argyllshire, and, styled themselves as the Kings of Dalriada; (b) the Cenel Loarn, so-called after Fergus Mor's brother Loarn, whose descendants held sway over the district called Lorne around Loch Linnhe and Glencoe, and, styled themselves as the Mormaers of Moray; and (c) the Cenel nOengus, so-called after Fergus Mor's [other] brother Oengus, whose descendants held sway over the Southern Hebrides, and, styled themselves as the Lords of Islay. It is unclear if the three brothers, Fergus Mor, Loarn, and Oengus, carved out these territories in their own lifetimes, or whether this happened in subsequent generations.
Children of Loarn Mor macMuireadaigh are:
- +Loarn macLoarn Mor, d. date unknown.
- Ferchar Fota macLoarn Mor, d. 697.
- +Muiredach macLoarn, d. date unknown.