Niall Nóigiallach - Niall of the Nine Hostages
http://www.larkinclan.eu/niall.htm
Niall
of the Nine Hostages was the greatest king that Ireland ever knew. His reign was
epochal, and was the Irish equivalent of Alexander the Great in Macedonia. He not only
ruled Ireland greatly and strongly, but carried the name and the fame, and the
power and the fear, of Ireland into all neighbouring nations. He was, moreover,
founder of the longest, most important, and most powerful Irish royal dynasty. Almost
without interruption his descendants were the High Kings of Ireland for 600 years.
Under him the spirit of pagan Ireland leaped up in its last great flame of
military glory. In later generations, this was to be superseded by another great flame,
less fierce but just as powerful; which spread to the bounds of neighbouring nations
to the uttermost ends of Europe. That was the flame kindled by Patrick,
which was to expand and grow for centuries.
Niall of the Nine Hostages, or Níall Nóigiallach, was the youngest son of Eochaidh Mugmedon (King of
Connacht), by his second wife. He succeeded Criomthainn as king. He became the 126th High King of
Ireland. His brothers were Fíachra and Brian. Niall became High King in 445 A.D., and reigned until
his death in 453 A.D. Niall was said to have ruled over Tara, but modern historians think
it more likely that Niall’s descendants founded Tara, and that Niall himself actually set up
his kingdom at Uisnech, another "royal hill" in Meath.
In Niall's time, Ireland
was governed in a loose federal arrangement of four large provinces (Ulster,
Munster, Leinster & Connacht). A fifth province, known as Meath (the centre)
bordering all four of the other provinces, and joining the sea to the Shannon
river, was set aside as the central governing area ruled from Uisneach at first,
and later from Tara. The four provinces each had their own King, and
central control fell to the most powerful of these, who would become High King.
The four provincial Kings would, at least nominally, be subservient to the High
King. One of the first verifiable historical Irish leaders, Niall Noígillach,
died still High King King in 453; His brother Fiachra's children were Amalgaid
macFiachrach, Dathaí macFiachrach, and a third son whose name is unknown.
Dathaí went on to also become King of Ireland. Niall was grandson of Muiredeach Tireach.
This grandfather Muiredeach Tireach was the 123rd Gaelic monarch of Ireland. His father,
Eochaid Muig Medon, son of Muiredeach, became High King mid way of the fourth
century, becoming the 124th Gaelic monarch. By his second wife, Carthann or
Carinna, daughter of a British king, Eochaid had the son Niall, his youngest
offspring, who thereby inherited royal blood on both his paternal & maternal
lines. By his first wife, Mong Fionn, daughter of the King of Munster, Eochaid had
four sons, Brian, Fiachra, Ailill, and Fergus. It was no lowly pedigree -
Niall's father, and his grandfathers back to those other legendary figures
Cormac MacAirt and Conn of the 100 Battles represented an unbroken line of royal
Irish kings. Niall went on to become the 126th king of all Ireland, and had 12
sons by his two wives, Inné and Roighneach.
It
is said that Niall was responsible for having captured the young boy, later to
be St. Patrick, along with his 2 sisters during a raid along the coast of
Britain. In 405, Niall led an expedition against Britain, where it
is thought that he may have captured the young Romano-British boy named Succat but
becoming known as Patricus,son of Calpurnius, a local magistrate, from somewhere in the
region of the modern Milford Haven. A
son of Niall, who later followed his father as High-King at Tara circa 427-430, welcomed St.
Patrick to his court in 432. Patricus later came
to be known as St.Patrick. And in the 27th year of his reign, this Patrick was first brought
into Ireland at the age of 16 years, among 200 children brought by the army out of Britain. He
carried back hostages, many captives, and great booty from these expeditions and
from his excursions into Britain, Armorica & Gaul.
Yet how often out of evil cometh good. It was in one of these marauding expeditions
that the lad Succat, destined under his later name of Patrick to be the greatest
and noblest figure Ireland ever knew, was taken in a sweep of captives, carried
to Ireland and to Antrim, there to herd the swine of the chieftain, Milcho, on
Slieve Mish.
From
Ireland & Britain, Niall marched with his victorious army of
Irish Scots, Picts and Britons further into Gaul (France) in order to the conquest
thereof; and he was the first that gave the name of Scotia Minor to Scotland and ordained it
to be called so ever after, till then (and still by the Irish) called Albion.
Niall must have made many incursions into Britain and indeed several into
Gaul. Many and many a time, in Alba, in Britain, and in Gaul, must Niall
have measured his leadership against the best leadership of Rome, and pitted the
courage and wild daring of his Gaelic hosts against the skill of the Imperial
Legions. And the Nine Hostages? In his time, it was usual to for victorious
conquerors to take captives, usually of exalted rank, as hostages for the good
(i.e. subservient) subsequent behaviour of the vanquished. Niall is said to have
taken princely hostages from the nine great kingly regions he subdued.
These were the Irish in Ulster, Munster, Leinster &
Connacht; the Saxons of Britain, the Picts of Scotland; the Morini of Gaul
and of Picardy.
Niall was famed and feared for his raids on Britain along with his brothers and
sons. He eventually came to control most of the Northern half of Ireland. He
conquered the Uliad aristocracy, which ruled in Ulster, and by this victory and
subsequent consolidation of power was able to found a dynasty, the Uí Neill,
which gave rise to the O'Neill clan. Three of his sons founded kingdoms in
Ulster (collectively the Northern Uí Neill), other sons founded kingdom in the
Irish midlands (the Southern Uí Neill). His children included Conall macNéill,
after whom Donegal was names Tír Conaill; Eóghan (Owen) macNéill, after
whom the Inishowen peninsula is named; Coirpre macNéill, who went on to also
become King of Ireland; Laoghaire (Leary) macNéill, another to succeed as King of Ireland;
and Conall Cremthainne macNéill. His own brother Brian established the dynasty
which provided the kingship, nobility and the aristocracy of Connacht for 600
years, and through that kingship, the frequent high-kingship of Ireland right up
to the 12th century.
As
he was encamped at the River Loire in Gaul, Niall was treacherously slain by Eochaidh,
who was a son of Eanna Ceannselaigh, the King of Leinster, as he sat by
the riverside; in revenge of a former wrong by him
received from the said Niall, A.D. 405. Yet his fall in a foreign land was
to be brought about, not by the strategy or might of the foreign enemy, but by
the treachery of one of his own. Niall
was killed by Eochaidh, Prince of Leinster while in Gaul (France) in a ford of
the river Leon (now called Lianne) that spot is now called the Ford of Niall
near Boulogue-sur-mer. He fell by the hand of Eochaidh; who, from ambush, with an arrow, shot dead the great king in
revengefor some ancient wrong.
Niall was the first to refer to Alba (Scotland) as "Scotia Minor" and
Inis Ealga (Ireland) as "Scotia Major". Niall had no children
with his first wife Inné, but had 12 sons with his second wife Roighneach.
These sons were called Eoghan, Laoghaire, Conall Gulban, Aliall, Fiachadha,
Máine, Cairpire, Fergus, Aonghus, Ailthearg and Fergus Ailtleathan.
The
importance of Niall for succeeding generations, apart from the heroic
exploits which give him legendary status, has been in the way his conquests
are reflected not only in place-names across all of Ireland, but also in the
clann names which preceded the present-day surnames or family names of so
many Irish families of Gaelic origin, as well as a great many of the
proper-names/first-names too. Literally hundreds of Gaelic forenames
& surnames derive directly from this extraordinary king and his immediate
family, siblings, successors and descendants. Although the names are far too
numerous to list fully, they do include not only the O'Neills dynasty all over
Ireland, but more locally, they include the Kellys, the MacEgans, the Donellans,
the Maddens, Larkins, Finnertys, Cosgraves and Mooneys - and that's just in the territory of
Hy Many (Uí Máine, named for Niall's son, Máine Mór,
who conquered this territory from the pre-Celtic Fir Bolgs in 457 A.D.). In the neighbouring
territory of Uí Fíachrach, (Named for Niall's brother, Fiachra) one can
add the distinguished clans of the O'Hynes and O'Shaughnessys; as well as the
Kilkellys, Fahertys, Kineaveys, Phelans, Keans & Coynes. The Uí Brían
region (named for Niall's oldest brother Brían) gave us the nobilities of Síl
Murray, and the great clans of the O'Connors, McDermots, O'Flaherty, O'Rourke,
O'Reilly and McManus. The territory of Cinéal Fiacha (named for Niall's
grand-nephew, son of Dathí the High-King) gave us the great Gaelic clans of the
Geoghegans, Molloys and Donoghers. And so it goes, in each of the great regions
of Gaelic Ireland where Níall Mór left his lasting imprint, now spread all
over the world; and recalled wherever the exiles' children raise a glass.
Niall Nóigiallach
is a very famous man (Nóigiallach is Gaelic for "having Nine
Hostages"). He was an Irish King who lived from about 350 to 405 AD. The
"nine hostages" refers to hostages that he kept from each of the places
that owed him allegiance. Niall was fond of raiding the coast of Roman Britain and on one of those raids he captured a man named Maewyn Succat, who became a slave in Ireland. Succat eventually escaped, returned to Britain, and became a Christian missionary. He then went back to Ireland to convert the Irish heathens to Christianity. We know Maewyn Succat by his Christian name, Patrick, or Saint Patrick.
The reason Niall Nóigiallach is famous is because he is associated with the List of High Kings of Ireland, one of the oldest well-established genealogies in all of Europe. Anybody who connects to the lineage can trace ancestors back to about 100 AD.
Niall is also famous for another reason. DNA studies
indicate that one in twelve Irish men carry a Y chromosome haplotype
that traces back to Niall. The haplotype is also common in Scotland and
England, and on the continent. This makes Niall one of only a handful of
men who have millions of direct male descendants. (Genghis Khan was
another [Genghis Khan a Prolific Lover, DNA Data Implies].)Families that trace their ancestry back to Niall of the Nine Hostages include: (O')Neill, (O')Gallagher, (O')Boyle, (O')Doherty, O'Donnell, Connor, Cannon, Bradley, O'Reilly, Flynn, (Mc)Kee, Campbell, Devlin, Donnelly, Egan, Gormley, Hynes, McCaul, McGovern, McLoughlin, McManus, McMenamin, Molloy, O'Kane, O'Rourke and Quinn.
My mother's maiden name is Doherty. We are descendants of the O'Dochartaigh's of Donegal in the north-west part Ireland. Donegal is in the Republic of Ireland not in the part of Ulster that became what is now called "Northern Ireland", which is part of the United Kingdom. Donegal is near where the most intense spot on the DNA map is located.
My mother was hoping to establish the direct connection between her ancestors and the ancient lineage leading to Niall but it hasn't been possible. That was a big disappointment because I thought it would be fun to have a known ancestor from 400 AD.
Recently I discovered that my ancestors connect to the Niall lineage through English and through Scottish lines that are completely unrelated to the Doherty's. This shows, once again, that most people in England, Scotland, and Ireland are related if you go back far enough. The fact that so many lineages connect to the Niall lineage is not as significant as you might think. It's mostly because that ancient lineage is so well known.
In my case, the connections come through Isabel de Clare, grandmother of Robert the Bruce of Scotland, and through Isabel Mar, the wife of Robert the Bruce. Niall Nóigiallach is one of my ancestors.
If your ancestors are from the British Isles, chances are pretty high that we are related if we go back 60 generations. We all have about a trillion potential ancestors back then but that's five orders of magnitude more than all the people who lived in the British Isles at that time.
33 comments:
- AnonymousFriday, October 24, 2008 9:15:00 AMAncestor worship may be among the earliest forms of religion.Reply
Ancestor worship is the cultural expression of kinship ties and band affiliation. By various means (including, it seems, proclamation on blogs) this form of piety turns shared ancestors into band totems, promoting both extended kinship and band solidarity.
For more on this perspective, see Jonathan H. Turner and Alexandra Maryanski, On the Origin of Societies by Natural Selection, Paradigm Publishers, 2008. - AnonymousFriday, October 24, 2008 10:14:00 AMHere's a much more sensible (non-religious) approach to one's genes:Reply
http://www.personalgenomes.org/ - anonymous says,Reply
Ancestor worship is the cultural expression of kinship ties and band affiliation. By various means (including, it seems, proclamation on blogs) this form of piety turns shared ancestors into band totems, promoting both extended kinship and band solidarity.
You seem to have missed the point. I don't know if it's because of ignorance or stupidity.
The point is that almost everyone with European ancestors is related to everyone else within the last 2000 years. In other words, ancestor worship is pointless, we are all kin.
In a few hours I'll be pointing out how easily this kinship spreads to the Middle East and Africa. - AnonymousFriday, October 24, 2008 11:07:00 AMI agree. Ancestor worship is pointless. But seeking high status ancestors is a (perhaps the) major motivation for genealogical research.Reply
"God" is "the father". - Two more of the branches of the Ui Neil are the McNeills of Ireland and the MacNeils of Barra, Colonsay, and Gigha (in the outer Hebrides of Scotland). My family is therefore apparently in the direct line of succession for the (currently non-existent) kingship of Ireland and Scotland. The current chief of the Clan Neil (Ian Roderick MacNeil, a distant cousin) is the 46th of that ilk. When his father, Robert Lister MacNeil (yes, that Lister, of carbolic acid fame) matriculated arms as the 45th chief back in the early 20th century, my grandfather was sent a letter by the Lord Lyon in Scotland, asking if he wished to dispute the claim. As doing so would have also made my granddad liable for over a century of back taxes on the ancestral estate on the isle of Barra, he declined. So it goes...
Of course we are all related to each other if we go back far enough, as well as various historical figures, but Y chromosomes are passed only from father to son, like surnames, so you can test any male Doherty relative to see if they have the Niall chromosome. There are sites online where you can buy the test.
The original study was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.