Connacht

Connacht, Connaught, Connachta, Connaght [Ir., descendants of Conn (?)]. A province of Ireland, the most westerly and smallest (6,610 square miles) of the four (the others being Leinster, Munster, and Ulster) whose borders were drawn in the 17th century. In pre-conquest times, as Cóiced Connacht, it was one of five, when Mide/ Meath is counted separately or Munster is counted as two. Within its borders are the counties of Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, and Roscommon. In the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge [Cattle Raid of Cooley], the ruler of Connacht is Queen Medb [Maeve], whose royal residence is at Cruachain (Co. Roscommon). For much of the narrative ‘Medb’ and ‘Connacht’ are almost synonymous. Elsewhere in the Ulster Cycle, which includes the Táin, the great hero of Connacht is Cet mac Mágtach.

Roughly coextensive with the region known as Nagatae in Ptolemy's geography (2nd cent. AD), Connacht is usually thought to be named for Conn Cétchathach [of the Hundred Battles]. In mythic narrative, Connacht is given to Sreng as part of the settlement after the defeat of the Fir Bolg at the First Battle of Mag Tuired; see CATH MAIGE TUIRED. Other notable rulers of Connacht include: Cathal Mór ‘of the Wine-Red Hand’, a personification of the province; Crimthann Cass; Eógan (2); Guaire; and Lairgnéan. The king of the Connacht fairies is Finnbheara, who resides at Cnoc Mheadha [Knockmagha], near Tuam, Co. Galway. Alenecma is the name for Connacht in Macpherson's Ossian (1760). In Irish the phrase Iar [remote, west] Chonnacht refers to the barony of Moycullen, now reckoned to be a part of Connemara. See also The Annals of Connacht, ed. A. Martin Freeman, Revue Celtique, 50 (1933), 1–23, 117–42, 272–88, 339–56; 51 (1934), 46–111, 199–301; also Annála Connacht (Dublin, 1944).