Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/313

Maelsechlainn form of the name of Fahan, co. Donegal. St. Mura [q. v.] founded an abbey here, now demolished, but of permanent fame from the literary distinction of its inmates. They all wrote historical verses, and there can be no doubt that as the fame of Mura urged Fothadh na Canoine, his comharba or ecclesiastical successor in 799, so the example of Fothadh led Maelmura, a member of the same community, to write historical poetry. Maelmura means servant of Mura, and was probably either adopted on entrance to the monastery of Fahan, or given with the intention of the devotion of the child to the patron of the Cinel Eoghain. The ‘Annals of Ulster’ quote a poem on the death of Maelmura under 886, and the ‘Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland’ quote another version of it under 884. The verses speak of him as a king of poets, and an historian without superior. His most famous poem begins ‘Can a mbunadas na ngaedel’ (‘Whence the origin of the Gael’). It tells of the remote origin of the race from Gaedhal Glas, goes on to the six sons of Miledh or Milesius, and their attendant bondmen, and relates the conquest and division of Ireland by them. This poem exists in the ‘Book of Leinster’ (fol. 133, b 11, Royal Irish Academy facsimile), and is sometimes called ‘In Cronic,’ the chronicle (, Silva Gadelica, p. 92, and, note in Irish Nennius, p. 268). In the ‘Book of Lecan,’ a thirteenth-century manuscript, there is another historical poem by Maelmura, addressed to Flann Sionna, king of Ireland in his time, recounting the kings from Tuathal Teachtmhar to Flann, and describing the battles of Tuathal against the revolted Aithech Tuatha and against the Leinstermen. The chronicler Tighearnach quotes one of his verses (, p. 524). He died in 886.

 MAELSECHLAINN I (d. 863), king of Ireland, whose name is often spelt Maelsechnaill (Annals of Ulster, i. 370), as well as Maolsechlainn (Annala Rioghachta Eireann, i. 472), is called by English writers Moyleseaghlyn (Translation of Annals of Clonmacnois), Melaghlyn, Melachlin, and Malachi. The aspiration of the ‘s,’ which begins the second half of this compound name, causes it to sound as if spelt Melachlin, the ‘e’ having the Italian sound, and the ‘i’ of the final syllable being short. The version Malachi is based on a farfetched resemblance in written appearance, and the line of Moore, ‘When Malachi wore the collar of gold’—a reference to Maelsechlainn the second—has helped to give it currency. The first was son of Maelruanach, king of Meath, who was son of Donnchadh, king of Ireland (770–97), who was descended from Conall Cremhthainne, one of the four sons of Niall Naighiallach [q. v.], who remained in Meath, and were the founders of the southern Ui Neill. His genealogy is given in full in the ‘Annals of Ulster’ (pp. 370–2). His father's elder brother, Conchobhar, was king of Ireland (820–34), and his father was chief of clan Colmain. He is first mentioned in the chronicles in 838, when he slew Crunnmhael, economus of Durrow. In 840 his father was defeated by Diarmait MacConchobhair, whom Maelsechlainn slew the next day. After the death of his father in 842, he became king of Uisnech, as the chief of clan Colmain was called, Uisnech being the most famous dun in his section of Meath. In 844 he captured Turges the Dane, and drowned him in Loch Owel, co. West Meath. On the death of Niall Caille, he became in 846 king of Ireland, and soon after attacked the Luighni and Gailenga, two Meath tribes, who had sided with the Northmen, and were plundering his country. He defeated them, and destroyed their stronghold on an island in Loch Ramor, a large lake on the northern division between Meath and Breifne. He next won a victory over the Danes at Farragh, co. Meath, and another at Rathcommair, and after these battles in 847 plundered Dublin, then a purely Danish town. On his return he encamped at Crufait, in Meath, for some time, and this expedition was celebrated in verse by Maelfechin, a contemporary poet. While he was here, Cinaedh, chief of Ciannachta Breagh, one of his tributaries, joined the Danes, and ravaged Meath, burning several churches, as well as the island stronghold of Loch Gabhor, the home of Maelsechlainn's ally, Tighearnach, who had been with him at the sack of Dublin. In 849 he captured Cinaedh, and drowned him in the river Nanny, co. Meath, in his own territory of Ciannachta Breagh, an event celebrated by Guaire Dall, and other poets. He then called a meeting at Armagh of the chiefs of