Connachta
The Connachta · the people of Conn, reckoned from Conn Cétchathach
Connachta, in English The Connachta, said KUN-ukh-tuh. A ruling kindred.
The west. The province is named for them, and the last two high kings of Ireland came out of them.
The name
the people of Conn, reckoned from Conn Cétchathach
Where
The west, ruled latterly from Roscommon.
In today's counties: Roscommon (Ros Comáin), Galway (Gaillimh), Mayo (Maigh Eo), Sligo (Sligeach).
When it mattered
Kings of Connacht throughout, and kings of Ireland in the twelfth century under the Ó Conchobhair.
The Connachta took their name from Conn Cétchathach, Conn of the Hundred Battles, and the Uí Néill claimed to be a branch of them who went east and stayed. Their old royal site was Cruachain, Rathcroghan in Roscommon, which is where the Táin begins with Medb and Ailill arguing in bed about who owns more.
The dominant line became the Uí Briúin and from them the Ó Conchobhair. In the twelfth century they did what no Connacht family had managed: Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair and then his son Ruaidrí took the high kingship of Ireland.
Ruaidrí was high king when the Normans landed in 1169. He is counted the last high king of Ireland, and he ended his life in the monastery at Cong.
What is left of the name
Connacht, Cúige Chonnacht. Rathcroghan is still an extraordinary place to stand in.
Names out of it
Families on this site that belong to The Connachta. A surname is not a pedigree, and plenty of people carry these names for reasons that have nothing to do with the old kingdom.
- O’Connor (Ó Conchúir)
- O’Flaherty (Ó Flaithbheartaigh)
- O’Malley (Ó Máille)
- O’Dowd (Ó Dubhda)