Connachta cid dia tá int ainm

Abstract

The dindṡenchas poem Connachta cid dia tá int ainm, found in the Book of Leinster and the Book of Uí Maine, has not been edited hitherto. Considerations are advanced in support of the view that it and another dindṡenchas poem, Mide maigen na marc mer, were both the work of a single author, Áed Ollbarr Úa Carthaig, who made similar use of Muirchú’s Vita Sancti Patricii in the two compositions. Áed, who seems to have been active in the mid-to-late twelfth century, belonged to a family which had supplied ollamain to the kings of Connacht; his own claims to this dignity were however probably only aspirational.