Notes

Note N259 Index

Gabrán mac Domangairt was king of Dál Riata in the middle of the 6th century. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Cenél nGabraín.

The historical evidence for Gabrán is limited to the notice of his death in the Irish annals. It is possible that his death should be linked to a migration or flight from Bridei mac Maelchon, but this may be no more than coincidence.[1]

Cenél nGabraín
Gabrán's chief importance is as the presumed ancestor of the Cenél nGabraín,[2] a kingroup which dominated the kingship of Dál Riata until the late 7th century and continued to provide kings thereafter. Kings of Alba and of Scotland traced their descent through Gabrán to his grandfather Fergus Mór, who was seen as the ultimate founder of the royal house as late as the 16th and 17th centuries, long after the Gaelic origins of the kingdom had ceased to have any real meaning.

Unlike the Cenél Loairn, the Senchus Fer n-Alban does not list any kindreds within the Cenél nGabraín. However, probable descendants of Gabrán, such as Dúnchad mac Conaing and his many kinsmen, would appear to have disputed the succession with the descendants of Eochaid Buide grandson of Gabrán, so that this absence of explicit segments in the kindred may be misleading.[3] A genealogy of David I of Scotland in the Book of Ballymote notes the following divisions:

After Áedán mac Gabráin, between the main line, called "the sons of Eochaid Buide" and "the children of Cináed mac Ailpín", and the "sons of Conaing"
After Eochaid Buide, between the main line and the "children of Fergus Goll" and the "children of Connad Cerr ... or the men of Fife", although modern studies make Connad Cerr a member of the Cenél Comgaill
After Eochaid mac Domangairt, between the main line and the Cenél Comgaill
The domain of the Cenél nGabraín appears to have been centred in Kintyre and Knapdale and may have included Arran, Jura and Gigha. The title king of Kintyre is used of a number of presumed kings of the Cenél nGabrain. Two probable royal sites are known, Dunadd, which lies at the northern edge of their presumed lands, and Aberte (or Dún Aberte), which is very likely the later Dunaverty on the headland beside Southend, Kintyre.

Kilmartin may have been an important early Christian site by reason of its proximity to Dunadd and its dedication to Saint Martin of Tours, as may Kilmichael Glassary. However, there appears to be no religious site of the importance of Lismore in the lands of the rival Cenél Loairn.

References
Adomnán of Iona, Life of Saint Columba, tr. & ed. Richard Sharpe. Penguin, London, 1995. ISBN 0-14-044462-9
Bannerman, John, Studies in the History of Dalriada. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1974. ISBN 0-7011-2040-1
Lane, Alan & Campbell, Ewan, Dunadd: An early Dalriadic capital, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000. ISBN 1-84217-024-4
Sharpe, Richard, "The thriving of Dalriada" in Simon Taylor (ed.), Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland 500-1297. Fourt Courts, Dublin, 2000. ISBN 1-85182-516-9
Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, by John O'Hart, 5th Edition, 1892

Notes

Note N238 Index

Domangart Réti was king of Dál Riata in the early 6th century, following the death of his father, Fergus Mór.

He had at least two sons: Comgall and Gabrán, both of whom became kings in succession. The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick states that he was present at the death of the saint, circa 493. Domangart died around 507 and was succeeded by Comgall.

His byname, Réti, appears in Adomnán's Life of Saint Columba, in the form Corcu Réti, perhaps a synonym for Dál Riata. Corcu, a Primitive Irish language term for a kin group, usually combined with the name of a divine or mythical ancestor, is apparently similar to the term Dál. Alternatively, rather that representing an alternative name for all of Dál Riata, it has been suggested Corcu Réti was the name given to the kin group which later divided to form the Cenél nGabráin of Kintyre and the Cenél Comgaill of Cowal, thus excluding the Cenél nÓengusa of Islay and the Cenél Loairn of middle and northern Argyll.

Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, by John O'Hart, 5th Edition, 1892

Notes

Note N237 Index

Fergus Mór mac Eirc (Scottish Gaelic: Fergus Mňr Mac Earca) was a legendary king of Dál Riata. He was the son of Erc.

"In A.D. 498, Fergus Mor Mac Earca, in the twentieth year of the reign of his father, Muredach, son of (Eugenius, or) Owen, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, with five more of his brothers, viz., another Fergus, two more named Loarn, and two named Aongus (or Ćneas), with a complete army, went into Scotland to assist his grandfather Loarn, who was king of Dalriada, and who was much oppressed by his enemies the Picts, who were in several battles and engagements vanquished and overcome by Fergus and his party. Whereupon, on the king's death, which happened about the same time, the said Fergus was unanimously elected and chosen king, as being of the Blood Royal, by his mother; and the said Fergus was the first absolute king of Scotland, of the Milesian Race: so the succession continued in his blood and lineage ever since to this day."-- Four Masters.

According to the Scottish chroniclers, it was A.D. 424, that Fergus Mor Mac Earca went from Ireland to Scotland. Before him, the Milesian kings in that country were kings only of that part of it called "Dalriada," of which Loarn, the grandfather of Fergus Mor Mac Earca (Mac Earca: Irish, son of Earca, daughter of Loarn) was the last king (see Part IX., c. iv. under "The Genealogy of the Kings of Dalriada").

While his historicity may be debatable, his posthumous importance as the founder of Scotland in the national myth of Medieval and Renaissance Scotland is not in doubt. Rulers of Scotland from Cináed mac Ailpín until the present time claim descent from Fergus Mór.

Fergus Mór in early sources
The historical record, such as it is, consists of an entry in the Annals of Tigernach, for the year 501, which states: Feargus Mor mac Earca cum gente Dal Riada partem Britaniae tenuit, et ibi mortuus est. (Fergus Mór mac Eirc, with the people of Dál Riata, held part of Britain, and he died there.) However, the forms of Fergus, Erc and Dál Riata are later ones, written down long after the 6th century. The record in the Annals has given rise to theories of invasions of Argyll from Ireland, but these are not considered authentic.[1]

Fergus is also found in the king lists of Dál Riata, and later of Scotland, of which the Senchus Fer n-Alban and the Duan Albanach can be taken as examples. The Senchus states that Fergus Mór was also known as Mac Nisse Mór. These sources probably date from the 10th and 11th centuries respectively, between 30 and 40 generations after Fergus may have lived.

The Senchus and the Duan name Fergus's father as Erc son of Eochaid Muinremuir. A Middle Irish genealogy of the kings of Alba gives an extensive genealogy for Fergus: [Fergus] m. h-Eircc m. Echdach Muinremuir m. Óengusa Fir m. Feideilmid m. Óengusa m. Feideilmid m. Cormaicc, and a further forty-six generations here omitted.[2] While it was suggested some believe Fergus claimed lineage to Arthur, the historian John Morris has suggested, instead, that Fergus was allowed to settle in Scotland as a federate of Arthur, as a bulwark against the Picts.

These sources, while they offer evidence for the importance of Fergus Mór in Medieval times, are not evidence for his historical career. Indeed, only one king in the 6th century in Scotland is known from contemporary evidence, Ceretic of Alt Clut, and even this identification rests upon a later gloss to Saint Patrick's Letter to Coroticus. The first kings of Dál Riata whose existences are reasonably sure are Fergus's grandsons Gabrán mac Domangairt and Comgall, or perhaps his great-grandson Áedán mac Gabráin.

Fergus Mór in later accounts
Andrew of Wyntoun's early 15th century Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland says that Fergus was the first Scot to rule in Scotland, and that Cináed mac Ailpín was his descendant. In addition, he writes that Fergus brought the Stone of Scone with him from Ireland, that he was succeeded by a son named Dúngal. A list of kings follows which is corrupt but bears some relation to those found in earlier sources.[3]

If Wyntoun's account adds little to earlier ones, at the end of the 16th century George Buchanan in his Rerum Scoticarum Historia added much, generally following John of Fordun. In this version, the Scots had been expelled from Scotland when the Romans under one Maximus conquered all of Britain. His father Eugenius had been killed by the Romans, and Fergus, Fergusius II according to Buchanan's count, was raised in exile in Scandinavia. He later fought with the Franks, before eventually returning to Scotland and reconquering the Scottish lands. He was killed in battle against Durstus, king of the Picts, and was succeeded by his son Eugenius.[4]

Buchanan's king, James VI, shared the scholar's view of the origins of his line, describing himself in one of many verses written to his wife Anne of Denmark, as the "happie Monarch sprung of Ferguse race". Nor was James VI the last ruler to share this belief. The Great Gallery of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh was decorated with eighty-nine of Jacob de Wet's portraits of Scottish monarchs, from Fergus to Charles II, produced to the order of James's grandson.

References
Broun, Dauvit, "Dál Riata" in Michael Lynch (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford UP, Oxford, 2001. ISBN 0-19-211696-7
Campbell, Ewan, "Were the Scots Irish ?" in Antiquity, 75 (2001), pp. 285-292.
Foster, Sally M., Picts, Gaels, and Scots: Early Historic Scotland. Batsford, London, 2004. ISBN 0-7134-8874-3
From Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, by John O'Hart, 5th Edition, 1892