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5 unusual facts about Connacht


Athlone Castle

The earliest recorded “castle” of Athlone was a wooden structure built in 1129, by King Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair of Connacht, possibly on the site of the present castle.

Ballyhannon Castle

Although there are many substantial families of Hannon in Munster and Connaught, the name seldom appears in the annals of medieval Ireland.

Cathal

As is obvious from the list below, the name was in medieval times most popular in Ireland's two western provinces, Munster and Connacht.

Donamon Castle

It was the seat of the Ó Fionnachta chief of Clann Chonnmhaigh, one of the two main branches of this Connacht family.

Parliamentary constituencies in the Republic of Ireland

These new changes resulted in the creation of a 43rd constituency and the removal of the provincial boundary breach between Leinster and Connacht.


2013 Connacht Senior Football Championship

Following that victory and with a first ever Connacht final ahead of them, the city's mayor Boris Johnson sent “Huge congratulations to the London team as they continue on with their historic march towards this year's Connacht Senior Football Championship Final. Regardless of the result against Mayo, London can be proud of their mightily impressive achievements this year. They travel to Castlebar on their momentous quest for victory with best wishes from me and all London fans. Go London!”.

Aaron Conneely

Conneely, who plays his club rugby for the Galway city team Corinthians, came through the Connacht academy and was part of the Connacht Under-20 side that took the Grand Slam in the Interprovincial Championship during the 2011-12 season.

Act of Settlement 1662

The 1652 Act ordered that all confiscated lands east of the Shannon (Ulster, Leinster and Munster) be cleared and the inhabitants transplant themselves to the west (to Connacht and County Clare), to be replaced by English Puritans (who were later to be known as Dissenters).

Áed Ua hOissín

Aubrey Gwynn concludes that Ua Oisin was not a Bishop immediately prior to his investiture as the first Archbishop of Tuam and of Connacht.

All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie Championship 1978

The championship was organised on the traditional provincial system used in Gaelic Games since the 1880s, with Portglenone defeating Swatragh in the Ulster final (with former Ahane player Vera Mackey on their side) and Athenry winning the Connacht championship.

Annals of Connacht

The early sections, commencing with the death of King Cathal Crobdearg Ua Conchobair of Connacht, are exceptionally detailed and give a good account of Connacht affairs during the 13th and early to mid-14th century, particularly for the families of O'Connor and Burke.

Archbishop of Tuam

At the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111, Tuam was named as the seat of a diocese corresponding roughly with the diocese of Elphin, whilst Cong was chosen as the seat of a diocese corresponding with the later archdiocese of Tuam in west Connacht.

Battle of Áth an Chip

The Battle of Áth-an-Chip was a battle fought in 1270 between armies of the Kingdoms of Connacht and England near Carrick-on-Shannon in Ireland.

Caubeen

In 1938 the Irish Prime Minister's deputy, James Dillon, complained about a tax on imported ladies' hats, remarking that Irish ladies would be forced to wear "Connacht caubeens".

Daniel Axtell

On 25 October 1650 Axtell led the Parliamentarian army to victory at the battle of Meelick Island (a Crannog on the Shannon, on which the Connaught Irish army was camped) after launching a sudden attack on the Irish army under cover of darkness.

Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin

In a 1903 book, Douglas Hyde, an Irish scholar from Roscommon who had learned Irish, referred to him as "a schoolmaster named O'Sullivan, in Munster" in his book The Songs of Connacht (which includes a drinking song by Ó Súilleabháin).

Flaithbertach mac Inmainén

Flaithbertach is first mentioned by the Irish annals in 907, when he is recorded, along with the then-King of Munster Cormac mac Cuilennáin, leading an expedition by the Munstermen against Connacht and the Uí Néill.

Goffraidh Ó Dónaill

In 1257,he drove the English out of northern Connacht after the battle of Creadran-Cille killing Maurice Fitzgerald in personal combat, but suffering severe injuries.

Kings of Umaill

By the 12th century the ruling family adopted the surname Ó Máille, and were reckoned with the Ó Dubhda, Ó Flaithbheartaigh and Mac Conraoi as supreme seafaring clans of Connacht.

Mac Maoláin

Mac Maoláin was a surname borne by a number of unrelated families in Gaelic Ireland, found in Breifne, Mide, Brega, Connacht and Ulster.

Mac William Íochtar

As a result of the Burke Civil War of the 1330s, the Lordship of Connacht was split between two opposing factions of the de Burgh family: the Burkes of Mac William Uachtar (or Clanricarde) in southern Connacht and the Mac William Íochtar Bourkes of northern Connacht.

Manus O'Donnell

Supported by Munster and Connacht, and assisted also by English contingents and by the MacDonnells of Antrim, O'Neill took the castle of Ballyshannon, and after devastating a large part of Tyrconnell he encamped at Knockavoe, near Strabane.

Muireadhach Ua Dubhthaigh

A member of a Connacht ecclesiastical family, Ua Dubhthaigh was born during the reign of King Áed Ua Ruairc (r. 1067-1087).

Nuadu of Loch Uama

The Vita tripartita Sancti Patricii gives the following reasons for Nuadu’s visit to Connacht-

Owen Ó hEidhin

Returning to Connacht, Owen and the English, now joined by Áedh Mór Ó Flaithbheartaigh, found the kingdom desolate as Fedlim had ordered all its peoples to take themselves and their livestock out of their route.

Pat Nally

Patrick (Pat) William Nally (March 1857 – November 1891) was a member of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and well known Connacht athlete from Balla, County Mayo.

Richard II de Bermingham

The succession crisis of the second Earl of Clanricarde and the subsequent Mac an Iarla wars, devastate his lordship, to the point where he admitted to Sir Henry Sidney that though his was the oldest Anglo-Irish lordship in Connacht, he and his people were reduced to penury "as poor a baron as liveth".

Richard Óg de Burgh

Richard Óge is credited as been the ancestor of the Burke family of Clanricarde in south Connacht (now County Galway, who became an extremely powerful family in their own right following the Burke Civil War of the 1330s.

Robert Mac Wattin

Mac Wattin was a member of a branch of the Barrett family of north Connacht, descended from a Batin or Wattin Barrett, alive c.1300.

Robin Lawless

Members of the Lawless family of Connacht would later hold lands "in the west of County Mayo, broadly in the area between Castlebar and Westport, with claims on Inishbofin and Inishark and a relationship with the Manor of Loughrea in County Galway. It is in these general areas that bearers of the name are still to be found in the 21st century." (p. 91, Martyn, 2011).

Rodney Ah You

He joined Connacht on an 18-month deal in October 2010, to replace the injured former England international, Robbie Morris in the squad.

Rory O'Connor

Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (1116–1198), king of Connacht and High King of Ireland

Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair

Aedh was blinded by Conchobar on Tairrdelbach's orders but Ruaidrí was protected by the Archbishop of Connacht, Muireadhach Ua Dubhthaigh.

Rugby Club I Cavalieri Prato

Cavalieri were drawn in Pool 1 Amlin Challenge Cup 2010–11 with Harlequins (ENG), Connacht (IRL) and Bayonne (FRA).

Saint Ultan

He was therefore apparently the son of the royal woman Gelges, herself a daughter of King Áed of Connacht (possibly Áed mac Echach).

Scabby

Cathal Carragh Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht from 1189 to 1202, who was nicknamed "scabby".

Siege of Smerwick

Richard Bingham, future commander of Connacht, was present and described events in a letter to the Earl of Leicester, although he claimed the massacre was perpetrated by sailors.

Stratford Eyre

Much of the dissent centred on Robert Martin of Dangan, the leader of the Connacht Jacobites and a leading Freemason.

Tadhg Ó Cellaigh

Rudhri was defeated, and Fedlim "plundered the officers of Ruaidri O Conchobair and seized the kingship of Connacht from Assaroe (Assaroe Falls) to Slieve Aughty himself .. and took hostages of the Clann Cellaig." Forced to submit, Tadhg now accompanied Fedlim, who switched sides and proceeded to wage war against his former allies, the Anglo-Irish of Connacht.

Thomás Bairéad

The primary focus of his mission was to travel among the Anglo-Irish of Leinster, Munster and Connacht dispensing gifts and gathering intelligence on the state of the lordship.

Tuileagna Ó Maoil Chonaire

A member of the Ó Maolconaire bardic family of Connacht, Tuileagna is known from a number of extant works, including Labhram ar iongnaibh Éireann, addressed to Sir Nicholas Walsh, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Speaker of the third Irish Parliament convened in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, (Perrott’s parliament) of 1585–6.

Uí Maine

There were two different Ui Maine, the Ui Maine of Tethbae and the Uí Maine of Connacht; these tribes were separated by the Shannon River.

Walter Liath de Burgh

This death was a catastrophe for the Anglo-Irish colony, as within six months all Ulster west of the Bann was lost, while Connacht descended into factionalism.


see also