Donn Carrach is the first Maguire to step clearly into the historical record, and the ancestor of every later Maguire lord of Fermanagh. The genealogies call him Donn son of Domhnall son of Giolla Íosa son of Donn Mór, and Geinealaighe Fearmanach names him as the first man to be called Mag Uidhir; modern historians are more cautious, noting that his parentage is obscure.
He first appears in the annals in 1264, when he burned out Muirchertach Mac Domhnaill of Clankelly and his people. From that success he went on to impose himself on the other families of Fir Manach and became the first Maguire king of the country. Later tradition remembered him as a protector of the poor and a generous patron of poets and men of learning.
The list of chiefs in Geinealaighe Fearmanach places his death in 1303; the Annals of Ulster give 1302. He was succeeded by his son Flaithbheartach (d. 1327). The genealogies credit him with a large family, and two of his sons, Amhlaoibh and Gafraidh, gave their names to the Mac Amhlaoibh (MacAuley) and Mac Gafraidh (MacCaffrey) septs of Fermanagh.
Sources and further reading
- Emmett O’Byrne, ‘Maguire (Mág Uidir), Donn Óc (‘Donn Carrach’)’, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Royal Irish Academy, 2009), doi.org/10.3318/dib.005372.v1
- Geinealaighe Fearmanach, ed. in Analecta Hibernica 3 (1931), and the Society’s family tree, ¶112
- Annals of Ulster, ed. W. M. Hennessy and B. Mac Carthy (Dublin, 1887–1901), s.a. 1302