JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HJSTORICAL SOCIETY NO'fES I. MEDIEVAL RESIDENCES OF THE O'DONNELLS RAMBLES lN DRUMHOLM (Hugh De1ery, Vol. 1, :No. 2, p 99 et seq.) I N his note, on Murvagh, in Drumholm, !Mr. Deery states that this .seems to be the pl:ace referred to in the O'Donnell poems. The principal residence of the O'Donnel'l ·chieftains in the pre-Norman-castle era was the fort in the southern Murvagh at the mouth of the Erne. In ,the bardic. :poems on the O'Donnells the royal Murvagh is frequently mentioned in conjunction with the Erne, never with Donegal. Its pr,ecise location is descrihed 1by Gofraidh Fionn ,Qi Dalaigh in bis poem, A Fh:ir The1id i dTir C'honam (Dioghluinn Dana, ·616, iL1. Mac Cionnaith, S.J.) composed in the reign of Connor O'Donnell ( 134.2) . The poet congratulates a friend who is going on a visit to beautiful Tir Chonaill. He •ct.escriibes the royal p~eiei111cts for him: Ma.gih n Rine of the lovely slopes, the E'rne with its flocks of birds, Assaroe with its trout and salmon, and Siodh Aodha above the warm strand:~ and then I see you coming to the smooth lawn of Murvagh. You view the Erne hither (i.e., inward:s). and the round hil:1s 1above the Erne, th.e peaceful green margin tJha,t the breezes wither not and each sl'Ope of tihe fla.t QUERIES Murvagh. In this town (baite), as a rule, dwells my :fli-iend Conor; good drinkers there be in his round f'ort (ca.tha.ir chorr) from . 1;he nobles of Ciin.eal Chonailt The original home of the O'Donnells was on the Lennonside, around Ramelton. Almost as soon as they /became rulers' of Tir Clhonaill their chieftains established themselves on the Erne, in order to follow up their expansion drive through Connacht. It was proba1bly Domhnall Mor (+1241), the second chieftain, who made Murvagh the royal seat. · T'.Bie ulace seems to have r1emained the ·chief residence for two centuries until Nian Garib r:r -< +1439) built a. Norman-type castle at iBallyshannon. Towards the end of the round-fort era the chieftains· had some connection with Reelin, but Donegal did not become the royal se·at until Red Hugh [. 1{ + 1505) built Donegal Castle <afterwards improved or rebuilt). !From the time of Manus O'Donnell (1563) Lifford tended to beco1me the chief seat. The earlier chieftains (!With a few exceptions) were iburied in Assaroe Abbey, the latter .chieftains in the Monastery of Donegal. In connection with the roundfort occupation of Murviagh it is interesting to note that the fc·rt itself was· the citadel of a baile (cluster of houses or town). In Leabhar Chloinne Suibhne it is recorded that when Mac SW:eeney Fanad visited Torlach an Fhiona ('furlogh of. the !Wine) O'Donnell, then his enemy, at Murva1gh he, was
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