Ua Suilleabain

Who he is

Name

Not pinned (Gilla na bhFlann Ua Suilleabain died in 1196; an Anad Ua Suilleabain dies in 1201)

Title

Chief of the Ui Suilleabain

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not pinned

Family

An Eoganacht family of the Meic Carthaig kin

Confidence

low

Driven from their old lands round Knockgraffon on the Suir by the English in the 1190s, they are moving south-west towards Kenmare and Beara, where they are found later; their seat on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

The king of Desmond

What it holds

• Lands about Kenmare and Beara (later certain, in 1200 thin)

How it was acquired

Migration under Mac Carthaig's protection.

Allies and rivals

Under Mac Carthaig.

How things stand that morning

Thin.

Wealth

Cattle and fish.

Military

Their own following.

Threats

• The English advance

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Only obits in Mac Carthaigh's Book.

On the map: Thin.

Primary sources for Desmond

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Inisfallen, Anonymous (monks of Inisfallen, Kerry, and earlier of Emly and Lismore) (the manuscript was written in 1092 and continued at Inisfallen in many contemporary hands to 1450). The Munster chronicle, written in Kerry in a hand close to the events. Read online
• Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, Various; compiled by Micheal O Cleirigh and others (1632 to 1636, from medieval annals now partly lost). A seventeenth century compilation but it draws on lost medieval annals, so its 1200 entries add names and incidents missing elsewhere: the Connacht war and the English of Meath and Munster, the deaths of Irish kings and churchmen across the island, and raids in Thomond and Desmond. Read online
• Mac Carthaigh's Book (Miscellaneous Irish Annals), Anonymous (a Munster compilation) (compiled in the later Middle Ages from Munster annals; manuscript of the 17th century). A Munster annal with a Mac Carthaig and Desmond slant, giving for the years around 1200 the kings of Desmond and Thomond, their wars with each other and with the English of Cork and Limerick, and the castles the settlers were building. Read online
• The Topography of Ireland; The Conquest of Ireland, Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) (Topographia 1187 to 1188; Expugnatio 1189, revised later). The Conquest ends in 1185 and the Topography describes the island as Gerald saw it in 1183 to 1185, so neither covers 1200, but they explain the lordship of Ireland as John found it: the grants of Leinster and Meath, the de Courcy conquest of Ulster, the Irish kings and their customs, and Gerald's advice on governing the country. Read online