Hypothesis: Niall Noígíallach Only Had One Son

[Webmaster]

It is a well recognized fact that the early Uí Néill Noígíallaig genealogies are extremely problematic. There has been a lot of speculation as to the cause of this. Here is mine.

What if Niall Noígíallach only had one son; and it was this solitary son who had the ZZ87 mutation? So all the men, except one, who have been called his sons were actually his grandsons or later descendants? Remember, the word macc was sometimes used to denote descendants, not literal sons, in the old texts.

The reason this idea is appealing from a genetic point-of-view, is that it duplicates what we are seeing with Brión and Fiachróe Foltsnáthach - no indication of a mutation formation in them yet, but only in their sons. Since all the Connachta progenitors shared a common father, it makes some sense that their father's Y-DNA would be transmitted in the same mutation free, or mutations in the same currently unreadable regions, manner; although Niall Noígíallach had a different mother and was probably quite a few years younger than the others. There is, of course, a lot of unproven assumption in that, but there is an appealing symmetry to it.

Here are some of my notes on the topic. Dates are primarily taken from Dr. Daniel P. Mc Carthy's Chronological Synchronisation of the Irish Annals, 4th edition, 2005.
https://publications.scss.tcd.ie/kronos ... -chron.htm

Below is a list of the "High Kings" leading up to Niall Noígíallach:

	Born (AD)	Rule Begins (AD)	Length	Died (AD)	Age
Fiachu Sraibtine		288	36? 27?	323 AD
Cairell Colla Úais		324	4
Muiredach Tírech		328	23? 30? 13?	351
Eóchád Muigmedón		352	10? 8?	362
Crimthann		362	5	367
Brión		367	10? 23?	377
Niall Noígíallach	<364 350?	378	27	405	42+

So if Niall Noígíallach only had one son and it was this solitary son who had the ZZ87 mutation; then let us temporarily call him "Óenmacc" macc Néill Noígíallaig, where Óenmacc = "one or only son". Below is a genealogical table with speculative birth dates using 30 years between generations. The 50 year gap between Eóchád Muigmedón and Niall Noígíallach arises from the fact that Niall Noígíallach was a much younger son than his older 3 brother, Brión, Fiachróe Foltsnáthach, and Ailill.

	Born (AD)	Died (AD)	Cause Of Death
Eóchád Muigmedón	~300	362	illness
Niall Noígíallach	~350	405	slain
"Óenmacc"	~380	~450 AD	natural?
Conall Eirr Breg	~410	480 AD	natural?

Here is the genealogy of Niall's "sons" from the Book Of Ballymote:

Niall mc. Eachach muighmedon tra .xiiii. mc. lais .i. Conall err bregh, Conall gulban ghuirt, Cairpri, Loegaire, Eogan Fiachu Maine Enda Aengus oilderg, Fergus aindteain Fergus mathlorg tria an uaithgen Caeldubh. Conall earr bregh a quo Clann Colman & Sil Aedha Slaine, Conall .g. a quo Ceniel Conaill, Laegaire a quo Ceniel Laegaire, Maine a quo Fir Teabhtha, Cairpri a quo Ceniel Cairpri, Enda a quo Cenel nEnda, Aengus a quo Ceniel nAengusa.

https://genelach.com/transcript-book_of ... ml#UiNeill
(Aside: who or what is Cáeldub?)

Below is a table of the named "sons" of Niall Noígíallach. However, the genealogy says he had 14 "sons", but only 11 are named. Who were the 3 missing "sons"?

	Death (AD)	Cause Of Death
Conall Eirr Breg	480	natural?
Conall Gulban Guirt	~464	slain
Cairbre	~495	natural?
Láegaire	462	natural
Eógan	465	grief
Fiachu	~514	natural?
Maine	440	natural?
Éndae		natural?
Óengus Óilderg		natural?
Fergus Aindteain(?)		natural?
Fergus Mátlorg		natural?

Again, at first I thought the likely missing generation might have been the postulated unnamed son, "Óenmacc"; but looking at the dates above, It COULD have been Maine since his is the earliest recorded death. Since his primary line, the Fir Tethbai, were not as notable as the other Uí Néill lines, perhaps most of his other sons elevated themselves to being "sons" of Niall Noígíallach instead of Maine. Sadly, AFAIK, we have no Y-DNA data from any of the known Fir Tethbai families, especially the Foxes.

Conell Mageoghagan in The Annals Of Clonmacnoise records that Maine macc Néill Noígíallaig died as early as 425 AD. However, the dates in The Annals Of Clonmacnoise have synchronization issues with the other annals, so that date should be taken with a grain of salt. But it DOES indicate that Maine died significantly earlier than his putative "brothers".

Not much seems to be known about Maine. There is even speculation that he is a genealogical figment or faked addition (see the link below). But, his generally accepted death date of 440 AD is fairly close to that of the hypothesized "Óenmacc", which is ~450 AD. This could explain the later death dates for some of the "sons" of Niall Noígíallach: ~495 AD, ~514 AD, etc. which are highly unlikely if Niall Noígíallach died in 405 AD. But if Maine was their actual father, these late death dates at least become feasible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethbae#Cenél_Maini

It is interesting that the territory of Tethbae abuts Connacht on the east. This would make it a reasonable first expansion out of Connacht for the Dál Cuinn. But again, this is all pure speculation based on circumstantial information that I have been casually examining over the last year or so; nonetheless, it does clear up a lot of the problematic early Uí Néill Noígíallaig dates.

[BuckeyeMike]

I wonder if Maine WAS Naill's only son or a graft and as "The Cenél Maini probably originated as part of a much larger Uí Maine kingdom extending from the eastern part of modern County Galway through County Roscommon, across the River Shannon, and into County Longford". My surmise that Maeve's 7 sons 'created' the Ui Maine territorial region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medb
Medb and Ailill had seven sons, all called Maine. They originally all had other names, but when Medb asked a druid which of her sons would kill Conchobar, he replied, "Maine". She did not have a son called Maine, so she renamed all her sons as follows:
Fedlimid became Maine Athramail ("like his father")
Cairbre became Maine Máthramail ("like his mother")
Eochaid became Maine Andoe ("the swift") and was also known as Cich-Maine Andoe or Cichmuine[15]
Fergus became Maine Taí ("the silent")
Cet became Maine Mórgor ("of great duty")
Sin became Maine Mílscothach ("honey-speech")
Dáire became Maine Móepirt ("beyond description")

It is certainly logical that Naill was not the ZZ87 because of the lack of a mutation formation in his brothers. Maine would be a likely candidate to fill the gap, he died about the same time as another famous 'Maine' (Maine Mor mac "?" d.407AD) whose lineage is debatable. Were these two part of the larger Ui Maine conglomeration that pop up in nearly every Connacht genealogy?

We shall see.