It depicts the wars between the Irish Uí Briain and the Anglo-Norman de Clares for control of the Thomond region of Ireland, drawing from contemporary sources for details.
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Cathreim is written mostly in prose, describing the wars between the Irish and the Normans over the area now known as County Clare in the Thomond region of Ireland, itself a portion of northern Munster.
However, this method was successful in some areas, notably in Thomond, where it was supported by the ruling O'Brien dynasty.
Uí Fiachrach Aidhne was bounded on the north and east by the powerful independent kingdom of Hy-Many or Ui Maine; to the west by Lough Lurgan (Galway Bay) and the Corco Mo Druad (Corcomroe); and to the south by Déisi Tuisceart (later the Dál gCais, later still the O'Brian's of Thomond).
Thomond | Murrough O'Brien, 1st Marquess of Thomond | Henry O'Brien, 7th Earl of Thomond | Earl of Thomond | earl of Thomond | Connor O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond | Barnabas O'Brien, 6th Earl of Thomond |
It became the county seat of the Earls of Thomond, descendants of Brian Boru, King of Ireland in 1002.
In 1558, the castle—now noted as one of the principal stongholds of Thomond—was taken by Thomas Radclyffe, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from Donal O'Brien of Duagh, last King of Thomond (died 1579), and given to Donal's nephew, Connor O'Brien.
The spark came in 1616, after the final annexation of the modern County Clare (containing part of the ancient kingdom of Thomond) to the Eberian province of Munster (whereupon the Earl of Thomond was appointed president of the province) and the death in exile of the last great Eremonian, Hugh O'Neill.
Donough Edward Foster O'Brien, 16th Baron Inchiquin (5 January 1897 – 19 October 1968) was the holder of a hereditary peerage in the Peerage of Ireland, as well as Chief of the Name of O'Brien and Prince of Thomond in the Gaelic Irish nobility.
Admiral James McEdward O'Brien, 3rd Marquess of Thomond, GCH (1769–1855), styled Lord James O'Brien from 1809 to 1846, was a British naval officer.
Wadding collected the funds for the establishment of the College of St. Isidore in Rome, for the education of Irish priests, opened 24 June 1625, with four lecturers—Anthony O'Hicidh of a famous literary family in Thomond, Martin Breathnach from Donegal, Patrick Fleming from Louth, and John Punch from Cork.
James Frost's 1893 "History and Topography of the County of Clare" mentions that in August 1585 Sir John Perrott, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, required the principal gentry of Thomond to sign an Indenture which, among other things, abolished all Irish titles.
The Thomond deeds are Irish deeds relating to lands and property in Thomond, County Clare, preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.