Airgialla
Oriel · most likely those who give hostages
Airgialla, in English Oriel, said AR-ee-GEE-uh-luh. A confederation.
Mid Ulster. Not one people but a group of smaller ones, named for what they owed rather than who they were.
The name
most likely those who give hostages
Where
Mid Ulster: Monaghan, Armagh, north Louth and east Fermanagh.
In today's counties: Monaghan (Muineachán), Armagh (Ard Mhacha), Louth (Lú), Fermanagh (Fear Manach).
When it mattered
From the fifth century, squeezed steadily by Cenél nEógain from the eighth onward.
Airgialla was a confederation of small kingdoms rather than a dynasty, and the name tells you their position: the likeliest reading is those who give hostages, which is what a people did to acknowledge an overlord. The overlords were the Uí Néill.
Their origin legend credits three brothers called the Collas with conquering the north and breaking Emain Macha. That legend was written in the eighth century, several hundred years after the events it describes, at the point when the Airgialla needed a shared story to seal their alliance with the northern Uí Néill. It is politics in the shape of a pedigree.
Armagh sat inside their territory, which mattered a great deal, because whoever was near Armagh was near the church's centre of gravity in Ireland.
Where the usual story goes wrong
A popular version says the name means hostages of gold, from a tale about golden fetters. That is a late folk etymology; the hostage part is right and the gold is decoration.
What is left of the name
Oriel, the English form, is still used across Monaghan and Armagh, and County Louth was called Uriel for centuries.
Names out of it
Families on this site that belong to Oriel. A surname is not a pedigree, and plenty of people carry these names for reasons that have nothing to do with the old kingdom.
Next to it
- Uí Néill (The Uí Néill)
- Cenél nEógain (Tyrone)
- Ulaid (The Ulaid)