Ulster Kingdoms

Dál Fiatach were a group of related dynasties located in eastern Ulster in the Early Christian and Early Medieval periods of the history of Ireland. The Dál Fiatach were supposedly descended from Fiatach Finn mac Dáire, a King of Ulster, and are thought to be related to the Darini of Ptolemy’s Geographia, and, perhaps more directly, to the pre-historic Dáirine, and the later Corcu Loígde of Munster. Kinship with the Osraige is also supported, and more distantly with the Dál Riata. The Ulaid, of which the Dál Fiatach became the ruling dynasty, who were further associated with the originally Brittonic-speaking Belgic Érainn by genealogists and linguists. All appear to have at one point formed a single population group in the not-so-remote prehistoric past, which was still vaguely recalled in the Early Medieval period. The Dál Fiatach claimed kinship with the legendary Cú RoÍ mac Dáire and the Clanna Dedad.

Although Francis John Byrne describes the few La Tène artefacts discovered in Ireland as ‘rather scanty’, most of the artefacts (mostly weapons and harness pieces) have been found in the North of Ireland, suggesting ‘small bands of settlers (warriors and metalworkers) arrived’ from Britain in the 3rd century BC, and may have been absorbed into the original Ulaid population. The Dál Fiatach were once considered by scholars to be the true historical Ulaid (Uluti), but after the fortunes of the dynasty declined in the 7th century, the legendary heroes of the Ulster Cycle were in fact reclaimed as ancestors by the rival and unrelated Dál nAraidi (Dalaradia) or Pretani/Cruthin, who said that they were the “true Ulaid” themselves and descendants of Rudraige mac Sithrigi through Conall Cernach.

The legendary Ulaid were not, in fact, related to the ancestors of the Dál Fiatach, who rather stressed their kinship with the Clanna Dedad of Munster, fearsome rivals of the Clanna Rudraige. This kinship with the Dáirine and/or Clanna Dedad (Érainn) is not contested by scholars though it can be assumed the early generations of the Dál Fiatach pedigree are quite corrupt. This is also true for the pedigree of the Dáirine and Corcu Loígde. Their natural kinship with the Munster dynasties can only be reconstructed in studies of Ptolemy’s Ireland and by linguistics. Every known king of Dál Fiatach became King of Ulster (Ulaidh), but they did not monopolise the kingship as the Dál nAraidi supplied a number of powerful kings. Among the more influential Dál Fiatach kings were:

• Muiredach Muinderg (d. 489)
• Báetán mac Cairill (d. 581)
• Fiachnae mac Demmáin (d. 627)
• Bécc Bairrche mac Blathmaic (d. 718)
• Fiachnae mac Áedo Róin (d. 789)
• Niall mac Eochada (d. 1063),

A junior branch of the Dál Fiatach ruled Leth Cathail (Leth Cathail “Cathal’s half”) or Lecale, the peninsula beyond Downpatrick. Downpatrick itself, a prestigious monastic site, remained under the control of the main line of Dál Fiatach kings. The old name for Downpatrick, Dún dá Lethglais is, in fact, ‘fort of Lleth Gadwal’, the original Old British or Brittonic  form of ‘Cathal’s half’. The Dál Fiatach were displaced as rulers of all Ulster by the “Ui Neill, Gaelicised kindred to the Pretani/Cruthin and Dal Fiatach, invading from north-western Ulster or Donegal, who gained the allegiance of the Airgialla of central Ulster. As a result the Ulaid were left in control only of Counties Antrim and Down and the title King of Ulster came to mean ruler only of the east of the province. County Down was the centre of the Dál Fiatach lands, and Downpatrick was a royal site and religious centre. Scrabo Hill with its large Fort was its power base, with nearby Movilla,  under Uinnian ,  its religious centre.

In later times, from the 9th century, Bangor, originally controlled by the neighbouring Dál nAraidi, became the main religious site patronised by the kings. The descendants of this royal line include the clans MacDonlevy/MacDunleavy (MacNulty) and their parent, an actually Cruthin/Pretani dynastic house, O’Haughey/O’Hoey (sometimes alternatively prefixed MacCaughey), as well as the Carrolls and Kellys. The last kings of the MacDonlevy line were defeated by the Normans  under John de Courcy. They rallied and counterattacked but were unable to retake their kingdom from the better armed Normans. Most of the MacDonlevys eventually went west to Donegal, where they became hereditary physicians to the ruling O’Donnell dynasty of Tyrconnell, the ancient Venniconian Pretani, and many would later go by the name Mac an Ulltaigh (Son of the Ulstermen), anglicised MacNulty. The O’Haughey/O’Hoeys are still mainly found in County Down.