Historical account of the Macdonnells of Antrim

2 THE MACDONNELLS OF ANTRIM.
Colla Uaish and his brothers were commissioned to lead an expedition against the Ultomans, or men
of Ulster, and were granted as much territory as they might be able to wrest from the enemy. In
this expedition they were successful, having completely defeated the Ultonians at the great battle
of Achaidh-Leith-Derg, in Fearnmhaigb, now Farney, a district in the present county of Monaghan.
Fergus, the king of Ulster, was slain, and his shattered forces, pursued by " their victorious enemies,
were driven over Glenrighe (the valley of the Newry Water) into the district which now forms' the
counties of Down and Antrim, from which they never after returned. The Collas destroyed
Emania, and then took the whole of that part of Ulster now forming the modern counties of
Armagh, Louth, Monaghan, and Fermanagh, into their own hands, as swordland ; and it was
held by their descendants, the Maguires, Mac Mahons, O'Hanlons, and others, down to the con-
fiscation of Ulster under the English King, James I." (5)
Of the descendants of Colla Uaish, perhaps the most distinguished were his great-grandsons,
Loam, Angus, and Fergus, who, about the year 506, permanently laid the foundation of the
Dalriadic kingdom in Scotland. (6) These leaders were the sons of Eire, " and partly possessors of
Dalriada," an ancient principality on the Antrim coast, which extended from the Bush-foot to
the village of Glynn, near Lame, and from which the Irish colonists went forth. (7) It is not to be
supposed that all these emigrants, or indeed many of them, originally belonged to this territory,
but they assembled here, and sailed from the most convenient ports along its shore, — one of which
(5) fames I. — See Manuscript Materials of 'Ancient Irish
History, pp. 72, 73. This invasion entirely changed the
aspect of affairs in the North. " Until the year 332," says
Dr. Reeves, " Uladh or Ulster denoted a province nearly
as large as the name now imports, and the palace of its
rulers was at n-Eamhain, or Emania, now the Navan,
near Armagh." ■ Tighernach states that "the three
Collas afterwards destroyed Eamhain Macha, and the
Ultonians did not dwell in it from that out; and they
took from them their kingdom from Lough Neagh out
[westward]." (Reeves, Eccles. Antiquities, p. 253.) —
Speaking of the ruins of Emania, M. C. Ferguson states
that the Fort, although greatly diminished, still covers
about eleven acres. " From its elevated position an ex-
tensive prospect of the fine country around Armagh
stretching away to the Fews mountain, may be obtained.
Here we stand on a fortress of the Celt, which has had
a history of upwards of two thousand years. The adjoin-
ing townland of Creeve Roe yet preserves the name, and
designates the site of the House ot the Red Branch, a
species of military college in which the Ulster warriors
were wont to assemble." See Story of the Irish before
the Conquest, pp. 25, 26.
(6) In Scotland. — " Some consider the colony of 506 as
the first, and that which was intended by Bede ; as
Ussher, Works, vol. vi., p. 147; O'Flaherty, Og)gia,p.
464; Vardeus, Rumbold. p. 366; Chalmers, Caledonia,
vol. i. , p. 269. Others, again, assert that Cairbre Riada
led over a colony about the middle of the third century;
as O'Conor, Dissertations, pp. 297, 307 (Dublin, 1812) ;
Ogygia Vindicated, p. 162 ; Finkerton, Enquiry, vol. ii.,
pp. 61, 87. See Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia
Hibern., iii. 16 (p. 742, ed. Camden) ; Stillingfleet,
Orig. Britann., p. 287 (London, 1840) ; Reeves, Eccles,
Antiquities, p. 319." Adamnan's Life of St. Columba,
edited, with Notes and Dissertations, by the Rev. Dr.
Reeves, p. 433, note.
(7) Went forth.— "That tract of the county Antrim,"
says Ussher, "which we call Route was known to the
Irish by its true name of Dalrieda. It extends (as the
late most noble Randolph Earl of Antrim informed me
by letter) from the river Bush to the cross of Glenfin-
neaght, of which I find mention made in those ancient
Irish verses bearing the title of ' Patrick's Testament,' a
distance of thirty miles : the following old Irish verse
being brought forward in support. " [Of this verse the
late Dr. O'Donovan has furnished the following transla-
tion, in Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i., 362 : —
" From the Buaish which flocks fly over,
Unto the cross of Glenfinneaght,
Extends Dalriada of subdivisions,
As all who know the land can tell."]
"Now the whole of Dalreth or Dalrede," continues
Ussher, "with the island of Rachlyn or Rachrin lying
opposite to it, was in old times granted to Alan de Gal-
way, by John King of the English and Lord of Ireland, as
we know from the royal archives preserved in the
Tower of London : both being possessed at present in
hereditary right by Randolph Earl of Antrim, son of the
Randolph mentioned above ; to whom, by the way, on
his return from England, with his illustrious lady, the
widow of the celebrated George Duke of Buckingham, I
have, on the very day on which I wrote this, paid my
respects at the house of Viscount Moore of Mellifont."
See Ussher's Works, edited by Dr. Ellington, vol. vi., pp.
146, 147 ; see also Reeves's Eccles. Antiquities, p. 329,
note.