Laigin

Laigin, a people and confederation of dynasties claiming common ancestry from Labraid Loingsech and his grandfather Lóegaire Lorc. The derivation of the name Laigin is not certain, despite its traditional association with the word láigen (‘a spear’). This etymology is more likely to explain the supposed alternative name for the Laigin, Gáileóin. A third group associated with the Laigin, the Domnonii. The Lleyn peninsula in north Wales is cognate with the name Laigin. Among the dynasties regarding themselves as Laigin and descended from Labraid Loingsech were the Uí Garrchon, the Uí Máil, the Uí Failge, the Uí Bairrche, the Uí Dúnlainge, and the Uí Chennselaig, all of whom held the kingship of Leinster intermittently from the early historic period onwards. The last four of these dynasties claimed closer genealogical kinship, less likely then the ‘prehistoric’ genealogical connections to be wholly spurious, through their common eponymous ancestor Cathaír Már. The territory occupied by the Laigin, cóiced Laigen (‘the province of the Leinstermen’) in the south‐east of Ireland, extended as far as the Shannon and the Boyne until the 6th century, when it contracted under pressure from the midland and northern Uí Néill dynasties and from Munster. A division between the northern and the southern parts of the province (Laigen Desgabair and Laigen Tuathgabair) was reflected in the title rí diabul‐Laigen (‘king of double Laigin’).

Edel Bhreathnach