Lords and Patrons: The Mac Conmara and Evidence from the Poem

The bardic poem Créd fá seachnaim síol Aodha? was composed by Domhnall Ó Maoilchonaire of Ardkyle for his patron, Seán mac Taidhg Mhic Chonmara, Lord of West Clann Chuiléin. It was possibly composed for Seán’s inauguration in 1571 when he attained the lordship. In that year, his father Tadhg died, leaving the lordship of West Clann Chuiléin (modern day baronies of Upper and Lower Bunratty) to Seán, until his death in February 1602. The Mac Conmara were styled as tighearna (lord) of Clann Chuiléin and had colonized east Clare in the wake of the defeat and expulsion of the Norman colony at Tradraighe (Bunratty district) in 1318. After the capture of Bunratty castle in 1332 the Mac Conmara levied a tribute on subject clans in east Clare and consolidated their political ambition by securing important dynastic marriage alliances outside of Thomond.^[65] The Mac Conmara emerged as the principal urraí of the Uí Bhriain kings by the mid-fourteenth century.^[66]

Seán Mac Conmara was the lord of a leading branch of Clann Mhic Chonmara coined in the genealogies as ‘Fionn’. The Mac Conmara Riabhach (Reagh) lineage, by contrast, dominated east Clare (baronies of Upper and Lower Tulla) and were based at Mountallon.^[67] The poem by Domhnall Ó Maoilchonaire praises the lineage of Seán Mac Conmara and legitimises his rights of lordship and territory. Interestingly, the poem scans the territory of the Mac Conmara encompassing all of east Clare from Rineanna in the south-west of Tradraighe on the Fergus estuary, to the port of Clonrush in the far north-east of Clare. This sweep of territory—and the inference of lordship rights over it—is probably poetic licence as West Clann Chuiléin comprised only mid-east Clare. Such a reference implies the historical association of the Mac Conmara lordship—real and aspirational—encompassing all of east Clare, irrespective of the Uí Bhriain patrimonial strip of land in Uí Thoirdhealbhaigh on the western shore of Lough Derg, and Clonrush’s location in the Uí Bhloid territory of Uí Dhonghaile.

The poem touches on several important themes. It alludes to the high-status position of the poetic author and that his lands at Ardkyle constitute the demesne lands of the Mac Conmara lordship. In addition, specific reference is made to Ardkyle and its prestige: róimh na healadhna an Árdchoill (‘Ardchoill—that Rome of the Arts’). The poem begins with the author, Domhnall Ó Maoilchonaire, returning from a journey through Ireland and recounts the pseudo-history of the Mac Conmara and their descent from Cas who settled Thomond in historic times.

The poem sets out the descent of several lordly septs of the Mac Conmara who stem from Mac Con Mór — a Mac Conmara lord who flourished in c.1329.^[68] The four lineages of the sons of Mac Con are detailed, including the districts where their patrimonies were located: “Sliocht Shíoda Chaim” of Rosroe and progenitor of the Mac Conmara Fionn lineage; “Sliocht Choin Méadha” of Rathlaheen; “Sliocht Donchaidh” of Ballyogan; and “Sliocht tSeaáin mhóir” who were the descendents of Seán an Ghabháltais (John the Conqueror), the progenitor of the Mac Conmara Reagh lineage.^[69] This section of the poem provides a ‘legitimising’ introduction to the medieval genealogy and details the common descent of the lordly lines of the family.

The poem deals with the Uí Bhloid clans whose original patrimony included the trícha cét units of east Clare.^[70] This section of the poem refers to the original position of the Uí Bhloid and their bailiwick in Thomond prior to the arrival (and expansion) of Clann Chaisín. In an apparent reference to the wars between the Mac Conmara, lords of Uí Chaisín, and the Uí Bhloid clans of the early fourteenth century, the poem suggests that the Uí Bhloid were an obstruction to Clann Chaisín (ie Mac Conmara and allied vassals). Given that the expansion of the Mac Conmara into east Clare dates from the defeat of the Uí Bhloid at the battle of Corcomroe in 1317, it is not surprising that this features as an important theme underlying the political ascent of the Mac Conmara and their colonisation of the lands of the Uí Bhloid. Much of this can be categorised as the poet attempting to cultivate a sense of the past – a continual connected flow of events that link the past with the present; it is from this paradigm that contemporary events, in the mind of the bardic poet, can be divined.

In true style the poem praises the Mac Conmara and their communal consumption of food which parallels the central tenet of maintenance of Gaelic lordship and lordly right – the ability to levy cuid oidhche or hospitality rights (food tribute) over subject vassals. Hospitality rights of the household (muinntear) of a Gaelic lord, which included his important retainers and learned families, were an ancient right levied on subject clients and which served to cement alliances and provide a form of food-tribute to the ruling lineage.^[71] The ability to levy hospitality rights was a source of prestige in an environment where food was scarce and the creation of a network of obligations which could be drawn on when required cemented a lord’s power.^[72] The recurrent references in Créd fá seachnaim síol Aodha? of communal drinking and feasting alludes to this theme. The hosting of feasts by Gaelic lords is also depicted in the poem and hints at youthfulness and glorification of great deeds and violence.

The poem makes possible reference to the inauguration of Seán Mac Conmara, Lord of West Clann Chuiléin in 1571. The wording hints at a traditional inauguration in the manner of Gaelic lords (tiaghaid uime a-niar’s a-noir: ‘they gather around him from west and east’) where the principal representatives of the leading septs of the lordship would gather in an assembly—oireacht— to anoint the taoiseach of the clan. In a typical bardic poetry motif the author addresses the territory and land and refers to its goodness or ‘fertility’. In the scheme of the poet this mention is of critical importance as it follows the reference “except the steady sweet voice of Seán” (acht binnghlór socair Sheaáin) and draws connection between the lord’s virtue and the productivity of the land, echoing pagan beliefs in the favourable constellation of the land, fertility and leadership (Críoch iona lia mil is meas: ‘A land that is plentiful in honey and forest fruit’). There is, however, an element of ritualistic poetry here, as certain motifs are used time and again in demonstrating core poetic themes.^[73]

The ideology of kinship was the linchpin in the clan system and underscored the political economy of lordship. The fabrication that all constituent septs derive from a shared lineage was cultivated in order to ‘bind’ dependent vassal-septs to the ruling lineage to legitimise lordship and served as a rational response to relative scarcity of labour in Gaelic lordships. Only those septs that had an important connection or genealogical relationship to the lordly lineage are praised. The poem Créd fá seachnaim síol Aodha? mentions only two offshoot septs of the Mac Conmara Fionn. The Mac Fhlannchadha (McClanchy) and Mac an Oirchinnigh (McEnerhiny)^[74] septs are the only independent lineages cited. Other notable lineages that were correlatives of the Mac Conmara such as Uí Mhaoilchaoine (O’Mulqueeny)^[75] and Uí Chunnaigh (O’Cooney)^[76] and lesser septs such as the Mac Confhormaoile (McEnormoyle)^[77] and the distant noble branches of the Síol Aodha such as the Uí Ícidhe, Uí Ghráda, and Uí Dhobharchon (chief family Uí Lideadha) are notably absent.^[78]

The Mac Fhlannchadha and Mac an Oirchinnigh were the chief vassal-septs of the Mac Conmara Fionn of West Clann Chuiléin in the late sixteenth century.^[79] Both septs had patrimonial lands in Tradraighe since at least as early as c.1400.^[80] The Mac an Oirchinnigh featured in the Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh as allies of the Mac Conmara at the battles of Kilgorey and Corcomroe in 1309 and 1317 respectively.^[81] The Mac Fhlannchadha were a high status brehon clan who held numerous tower-houses in the vicinity of their principal seat at Urlanmore.^[82]

The poem initially recounts the Mac Fhlannchadha lineage as a collateral branch of the Mac Conmara, thereby establishing their credentials as a kindred connected to the ruling Mac Conmara Fionn. The recording of Mac Fhlannchadha pedigree—and the clan’s progenitor Néill who flourished in the eleventh century—accords with the traditional genealogies.^[83] The stanzas focusing on the two vassal-septs of the Mac Conmara refer to the higher status Mac Fhlannchadha first, and recounts their status as a professional service family (barr ealadhna na hÉireann – ‘the choice of the learned classes of Ireland’).

The second stanza refers to the Mac an Oirchinnigh family, an important freeholding sept of the Mac Conmara.^[84] Their patrimonial lands were located in Kilnasoolagh parish in Tradraighe district. The poem correctly identifies the genealogical origins of the Mac an Oirchinnigh whose reputed progenitor was Donnchadh son of Domhnall. Donnchadh can be identified in the Mac Conmara pedigrees as the brother of Cúmhara, king of Uí Chaisín, who perished at the battle of Móin Mhór in 1151.^[85] The poem makes mention of the specific calling of the Mac an Oirchinnigh as an erenagh family in a similar vein as the poem refers to the professional position of the Mac Fhlannchadha lineage. The poem achieves this by making a clear genealogical link between the sept’s reputed progenitor, Donnchadh who served as an erenagh, and his ‘goodly descendants’ (deighshíol) which were an established sept in the sixteenth century (Ag sin síol an tora[i]dh thruim – ‘behold the seed of the heavy fruit’).

Familiarity with the origins of these two Mac Conmara sub-septs is not surprising. Detailed genealogies would have been available to the bardic poets and they would have been expected to recount the chief genealogical (actual and fabricated)^[86] relationships that underpinned Mac Conmara lordship. The enumeration of vassal-septs was also significant as the audience for the poem would not have been solely Seán Mac Conmara as patron but the wider assembly of vassals in the lordship. The purpose, in part, was to inspire a shared sense of kinship. The recording of these two landholding vassal-septs was deliberate and significant; not least because the essence of Gaelic lordship rested on genealogically-inspired relationships that underpinned land proprietorship and sustained patron-client dependency.^[87]

The final two stanzas return to the theme of journey and surveying the landscape, but here the focus is on the patrimonial inheritance of Clann Chuiléin. This is a typical poetic theme in that the poet assesses his patron’s lordship and extols its virtues; here we are told that Rineanna was associated with shipping and that Clonrush served as a port. This is effectively the eastern and western extremity of the poet’s imaginary ‘patrimony’ of Seán Mac Conmara as Lord of West Clann Chuiléin.

What is intriguing is that both of these locations are claimed to be under the lordship of Seán Mac Conmara. Evidently this is ‘aspirational’ lordship and probably employed here to assert the historical right of the Mac Conmara Fionn over far-flung territories, some of which had passed to their correlatives the Mac Conmara Reagh. Some had never been subject to lordship. Clonrush fell within the Uí Bhloid patrimony of Uí Dhonghaile and was under the suzerainty of the coarb family of Uí Ghráda.^[88] Slieve Feilim, by contrast, was never under Mac Conmara lordship, but its inclusion may allude to the early Déisi connection to south Tipperary, prior to their re-emergence as the Dál gCais who conquered east Clare in the eighth century.

Likewise the reference to ‘Luchaid of the deep hillsides’ (Ó Luchad na learg ndomhain) is ambiguous as this was located in Kilkeedy parish in Inchiquin barony and was under Uí Bhriain control.^[89] Its usage in the poem is symbolic as it completes the geographical ‘survey’ of lordship serving as a theoretical northern extremity, while the mention of the Slieve Feilim mountains serves as the southern anchor of ‘aspirational’ lordship stretching down to the Limerick-Tipperary border. These references should be taken in their non-literal ahistorical sense – that they are used by the poet to indicate the virtue of the Mac Conmara patrimony and are read in the context of the poet’s own journey back to Clann Chuiléin.