BREIFNE

Right down through the ages, the Leitrim-Cavan area seems to have constituted to some extent a little world apart. The first recorded traditions of St Patrick do not bring him into direct contact with the interior of the territory.

Legend makes that territory the seat of the greatest heathen sanctuary of the whole island.

(It is not without interest that we notice that the only wooden phallic objects as yet unearthed in Ireland come from Counties Cavan and Meath.)

Breifne may have remained one of the last strongholds of paganism in Ireland. It certainly was among the last of the Gaelic lordships to pass under direct English control  

In the time of the Confederate Wars, the Cavan-Leitrim area was an important base of the Catholic forces operating in the north.

The explanation of this may be found in the difficulty of the Breifne country. All along the north-western marches stretches the chain of great waters comprising Upper and Lower Lochs Erne, Upper and Lower Lochs Macnean and Loch Melvin.

Behind this network of lake and river high mountains raise their ramparts to stay the invader. The whole western end of Breifne is a wilderness of barren heights and deep narrow glens, of rugged defiles and treacherous marsh, of countless lakes and myriad streams.

Early in the Middle Ages, the Ui Briuin kingdom which had arisen in this land of hills and lakes emerged as a potential factor in the national political situation, for Breifne in the grasp of a powerful stock was a spearhead thrusting at the side of Ui Neill   

As an Ui Briuin stat,e the Breifne kingdom owed its origin to a north-eastward expansion of Connacht dynasts... kings  

The earliest possible date by which the Breifne Ua Briuin could have come into being is 550 a. d.

The author is of the opinion that the Ui Briuin first came into being in Breifne not very long before 792 a. d. and almost certainly not earlier than somewhere about 700  a.d.

MASRAIGE.... Magh Slecht was the home of the Masraige. Once more we are dealing with folk whose name is of a prehistoric order... but this time the folk belongs to the aithechthuatha... that is was apparently one of the oldest communities in Ireland.

The Masraige preserved their individuality at least as late as the second half of the 5th century and perhaps even down to the eighth century. Their territory ultimately fell into Ui Briuin hands and they disappeared from history.

CAL RAIGE    Northwest of the Conmaicne Rein and separated from them by the Shannon and Loch Allen were the territories of a group of Calraige communities. These Calraige were like the Masraige in that not only were they bearers of an ancient name... but were also of the aithechthuatha.

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