The Sea-Kings of the Moy
By the year 1000 the surname had settled. The country was called Uí Fhiachrach Muaidhe — the Uí Fiachrach of the Moy — and its chieftains were Ó Dubhda. For the next three centuries they would fight their own kin, drown on cattle raids, hire Hebridean fleets, and fall at last to a Norman knight on a Sligo strand. This is how that age unfolded.
Lords of Hy-Amhalghaidh
Killed by his own tribe (I)
Aedhuar Ó Dubhda, lord of Hy-Amhalghaidh, is slain by his own people — the first of many internal killings the annals will record over the next two centuries.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1059
1066 World
Hastings
William the Conqueror takes England. The dynasty that will one day cross to Ireland has just been founded. A century's warning clock starts.
Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070 — Wikimedia CommonsMuircheartach the Boar
Muircheartach Ó Dubhda an Cullach — “the Boar” — lord of Hy-Amhalghaidh, is killed by his own tribe.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1096
1095 – 1099 World
The First Crusade
Pope Urban II calls Christendom to Jerusalem at the Council of Clermont. Irish clerics are plugged into the wider European world and its new wars.
Sébastien Mamerot, c. 1474 — Wikimedia CommonsDrowned on a raid
Domhnall Fionn Ó Dubhda, lord of Hy-Amhalghaidh, drowns returning from a cattle raid into Tirconnell.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1126Lord of the two Tírs
Aedh mac Muircheartaigh Ó Dubhda, lord of Tireragh and Tirawley, dies — the first annalistic entry showing both baronies unified under one O'Dubhda chief.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1143The High Tide
Sea-battle off Inishowen
Cosnamhach Ó Dubhda is named admiral of a combined Connacht fleet sent north by King Turlogh O'Conor. He is killed in sea-combat against a Scottish–Hebridean fleet — but the Connacht fleet wins.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1154Killed by his own tribe (II)
A second Cosnamhach Ó Dubhda, lord of Tirawley — “the last Irishman called the fighter of an hundred men” — is slain in his own house at Inishcoe on Lough Conn by one of his sub-chiefs.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1162; Mac Firbis
1169 World
Strongbow lands at Waterford
The Anglo-Normans arrive in Ireland. It will be sixty years before they reach the Moy, but the reckoning has begun.
Daniel Maclise, 1854 — Wikimedia CommonsA chief killed by his grandsons
Taithleach Ó Dubhda, lord of Tirawley and Tireragh, is murdered by his own two wicked grandsons.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1192Donnchadh Mór enters the annals
Donnchadh Mór Ó Dubhda appears in the Four Masters for the first time — allied with O'Hara of Leyny and Mac Dermot, defeating and blinding Cathal Carrach O'Conor so he can never again claim the kingship of Connacht.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1207Fifty-six Ships from the Hebrides
Donnchadh Mór hires a fleet of fifty-six ships in the Hebrides, joins it with his own, sails into Clew Bay, and compels Cathal Crovderg O'Conor, King of Connacht, to surrender the whole territory from the River Robe to Drumcliff — free of tribute.
“ Ar muir agus ar tír — By sea and by land ” Donnchadh Mór's seat — Enniscrone Castle → Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1213; O'Donovan, Hy-Fiachrach, p. 351
1215 World
Magna Carta
King John, under pressure from his barons, seals the charter at Runnymede. The same decade Donnchadh Mór is commanding Hebridean galleys off the Mayo coast.
Cotton MS Augustus II.106, British Library — Wikimedia CommonsThe Norman Reckoning
The de Burgos cross the Shannon
The Anglo-Norman conquest of Connacht begins. The Barretts are planted in Tirawley; a generation later they will be the O'Dubhda's chief enemy on their own land.
The O'Dubhda castle ring → standard Norman ConnachtMuircheartach “the Bad Cleric”
Muircheartach Ó Dubhda an Aithchleireach — chief of the country from Termon Dervilla in Erris to Traigh Eothuile — is killed by the son of Felim O'Conor.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1248Two Taithleachs at Moyne
Taithleach Muaidhe Ó Dubhda — Taithleach of the Moy — and Taithleach O'Boyle fight with such “prowes, manhood, dexteritie of handling of arms” that they surpass both armies. The Barretts are routed.
Moyne Abbey today → Annals of Clonmacnoise, s.a. 1281Killed at Tahilly's Ford
Adam Cusack, who had fought alongside Taithleach at Moyne a year earlier, turns on him and kills him at Béal Átha Tailtigh on the strand of Traigh Eothuile near Ballysadare. The place still carries his name.
Traces that survive → Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1282Drowned in the Shannon
Conor Conallach Ó Dubhda, lord of Tír Fhiachrach, drowns in the Shannon — the last entry of the Act.
Annals of the Four Masters, s.a. 1291And then, in 1316 at a place called Athenry, a man named Sen Brian Ó Dubhda would fight beside Felim O'Conor — and the Irish recovery in Connacht would never quite resume.
