Eochaid Mugmedon

Eochaid Mugmedón (Old Irish: [ˈɛxəð ˈmʊɣvʲəðən]) was a legendary Irish king. According to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, Eochaid was a High King of Ireland, best known as the father of Niall of the Nine Hostages and ancestor of the Uí Néill and Connachta dynasties. He is not mentioned in the list of kings of Tara in the Baile Chuind (The Ecstasy of Conn), but is included in the synthetic lists of High Kings in the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Irish annals, Geoffrey Keating's history, and the Laud Synchronisms.

According to the Lebor Gabála Érenn^[1] and its derivative works, Eochaid was the son of the former High King Muiredach Tírech, a descendant of Conn Cétchathach. Muiredach was overthrown and killed by Cáelbad son of Cronn Bradruí, an Ulster king, but Cáelbad only ruled one year before Eochaid killed him and took the throne. The Lebor Gabála says he extracted the bórama or cow-tribute from Leinster without a battle. However, Keating records that he was defeated in the Battle of Cruachan Claonta by the Leinster king Énnae Cennsalach.^[2] He was known as King Achaius to the Romans.

According to the saga "The Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon",^[3] he is said to have had two wives: Mongfind, daughter of Fidach, who bore him four sons, Brion, Ailill, Fiachrae and Fergus; and Cairenn Chasdub, daughter of Sachell Balb, king of the Saxons, who bore him his most famous son, Niall. Mongfind is said to have hated Cairenn, and forced her to expose her child, but the baby was rescued and raised by a poet called Torna. When Niall grew up he returned to Tara and rescued his mother from the servitude Mongfind had placed her under. Mongfind appears to have originally been a supernatural personage: the saga "The Death of Crimthann mac Fidaig" says the festival of Samhain was commonly called the "Festival of Mongfind", and prayers were offered to her on Samhain eve.^[4] Although it is probably anachronistic for Eochaid to have had a Saxon wife, T. F. O'Rahilly argues that the name Cairenn is derived from the Latin name Carina, and that it is plausible that she might have been a Romano-Briton.^[5] Indeed, Keating describes her not as a Saxon but as the "daughter of the king of Britain".^[6]

After ruling for seven or eight years, Eochaid died of an illness at Tara, and was succeeded by Mongfind's brother Crimthann mac Fidaig, king of Munster. Keating dates his reign to 344–351, the Annals of the Four Masters to 357–365.^[7] Daniel P. McCarthy, based on the Irish annals, dates his death to 362.^[8]

Ivocatus Magumedonos (Eochaidh "the Slave-Ruler") was a powerful king of the Connachta based at Tara, and an Irish raider of Roman Britain c. AD 400. His name appears Latin, but rather seems to be pre-Irish Celtic, and his soubriquet "slave-ruler" was probably in reference to his taking of slaves in Britain. The Celtic and Latin languages were closely related. As the Irish language evolved, radical changes in the spoken Celtic of Ireland started to occur about AD 400 onwards. Ivocatus' name was later rendered as Eochaidh Muighmheadhón.^[9] One such slave was a Romano-British girl named Carina, whom Ivocatus made his concubine. Later scribes corrupted her name to an Irish version, Caireann of the curly-black hair, and she is said to have been the mother of Niall.^[10]

The most likely ancestors of the Connachta were Irish Venii who would seem to have been a group of the Gaulish Veneti tribe from south-eastern Armorica (modern Brittany, France). Genetic research shows a strong relationship of the R1b-L21 haplogroup found in modern Brittany, Lower Normandy and Ireland.^[11] The Veneti were skilled seafarers and had trading stations in south-west Britain. Branches of the tribe had already settled there in Julius Caesar's time, possibly in Cornwall - a short distance to the southern coast of Ireland. As the Celtic spoken in Ireland became the Irish language, Venii changed to Féni, and the Venii's name for themselves became Gaídhil - terms from which are derived Fenians and Gaels.^[12] Early in prehistory the Venii tribe rose to dominate much of the south of Ireland. They claimed descent from an ancestor called Ovogenos meaning "sheep-conceived", a type of ram god appropriate given their economy of animal husbandry.

At some stage a strong section of the tribe branched off and established a kingdom west of the River Shannon. The southern section of the tribe replaced Ovogenos with Ivogenos meaning "son of the Yew", a cult perhaps borrowed from their neighbors, the Lagini tribe. Ivogenos changed to Eoghan and produced the Eoghanacht branch of the south Venii, while Ovogenos changed to Ughan amongst the north Venii who came to use the title "Condos" ("wise-head") for their leaders. Condos later produced the name Conn and by extension the tribal designation of Connachta. By about AD 300 the northern Venii had extended their power into the plain of Meath and overthrew the Lagini at Tara. They were led by a Teutovalos ("tribe-ruler") who had the soubriquet "teachtmhar" which meant "appropriator of wealth". The genealogies later called him 'Tuathal', and being hemmed in by the Ivernian kingdom of the Uluti in the north, and the Lagini south of the River Boyne Tuathal could only strengthen his tribe's position by accumulating wealth and resources by raiding western Britain.^[13]

The Connachta[]

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