Eidhean mac Cléireach

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Quick Facts

Gender
Male
The details

Biography

Eidhean mac Cléireach, ancestor of the Ó hEidhin/Hynes family of County Galway, fl. 800.

Eidhean was a member of the dynasty of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne, and a descendant of Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin (d. 663), Fiachrae mac Eochaid Mugmedon (fl. 5th century) and thus distantly related to the dynasty of Uí Néill. His descendants ruled Aidhne for a time, most notably in the 1090s when Flaithbertaigh Ua Flaithbertaigh seized the kingship of Connacht and installed an Ó hEidhin as a puppett-king for a time.

Eidhean was a kinsman of a number of other men whose descendants also took their surnames from them, such as

  • Comhaltan mac Maol Cúlaird – Ó Comhaltan, Colton, Coulton
  • Cathal mac Ógán – Ó Cathail, Cahill
  • Giolla Ceallaigh mac Comhaltan – MacGiolla Ceallaigh, Kilkelly

Though in many cases the relationship between these men was quite distant, Eidhean would have been a contemporary or near-contemporary of almost all of them.

He was killed in battle against Neide mac Onchu, about the year 800.

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