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Subject: Re: [DNA] Colla vs. Dalriata
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 04:33:32 EST


W.D.H. Sellar
Scottish Historical Review. Vol XLV (45): 123-142. 1966.
The Origins and Ancestry of Somerled

"The traditional genealogy of Somerled has been preserved in at least
fifteen old accounts. The most outstanding feature of these pedigrees taken as a
whole is their unanimity in descending Somerled through some eleven to
thirteen generations from Colla Uais, legendary high King of Ireland and one of the
three traditional founders of the Irish kingdom of Oriel (Airgialla) in the
fourth century A.D. This genealogy is obviously several centuries too short
and it has therefore been distrusted by some, and attacked by others. However
the most remarkable use to which the pedigree has been put is its
'extension' by some more recent Clan Donald historians. According to their theory a
'Fergus son of Erc' who appears in the pedigree nine generations above Somerled
is identified with the traditional fifth-century founder of the Dalriadic
monarchy of that name. His pedigree is then traced back to Colla Uais
regardless of the fact that the Dalriadic Fergus' traditional pedigree is well known
and is in no way connected with ancient Oriel - he descends through Cairbre
Riada from Conaire Mor, a legendary high king of Ireland who flourished at
the time of Christ according to the sennachies. A further elaboration on this
theory identifies the Fergus of the pedigree with that Fergus so of Eochaid
who ruled in Dalriada (778-781) and then traces him back through known
Dalriadic kings to Fergus son of Erc and so to Colla Uais! It is difficult to
know how this preposterous fiction first gained credence, yet it has been widely
followed, and even some of those who do not believe it (such as Eoin
MacNeill and D.W. Hunter Marshall) appear to have been misled by it. "

footnote: The first appearance of the theory would seem to be in 'A
Historical and Genealogical Account of the Family of MacDonald' (Edinburgh, 1819),
1-4. It is developed in 'Clan Donald, i, 18-35 and iii, 178, and appears
also in A.M.W. Stirling, MacDonald of the Isles (London, 1913). 257, and Lady
MacDonald of the Isles, 'The House of the Isles (Edinburgh, 1925), 18-25. to
name a few.


This then is an old error, going back to at least 1819.


William Skene had some interesting comments on the MacDonalds in his
"Highlanders of Scotland," (London, 1837).

The MacDonalds

p. 291

Of all the clans, that of the MacDonalds is by every rule of antiquity,
power, and numbers, fully entitled to be spoken of before any other. Their
founder was named in Gaelic Somhairle, and also by the Norsemen Somerled (very
possibly a corruption of his Gaelic name), both words having the same meaning,
namely, Samuel. This hero, for such he undoubtedly was, did more to free his
countrymen from the rule of the Danes and Norwegians than any other and, in
consequence, attained to a power greater than has fallen to the lot of any
subject of present Scotland. Of course, his family being claimed by the
grasping Irish writers as descended from their race, was to be expected; and
according to others, he was a Norwebian by descent, and for which they have nothing
to offer in proof of it but his name, Somerled, Samuel. but that name was as
well known, and perhaps better, to the Gael of Alban than to the Norwegians;
and Somerled's whole exertions were against the Norwegians, and to raise a
Gaelic race in the lsles, etc. As to the Irish claims, though they brought
Somerled and his forefathers from a race of Irish kings. yet this Irish descent
has ever been rejected by the chieftains and heads of the name, as also by
the whole clan themselves. His origin, as stated by Gregory, seems to be
clearly Pictish. His father was named Gillebrede, a very common Pictish name,
meaning the servant of follower of St. Bride or Bridget, and his grandfather
was called Gilladomnan, with quite a similar signification, as to the name of
Adomnan. There is a remarkable document, printed in the Iona Club
Transactions, of a Highland writer who flourished in the reign of Henry VIII, and who
gives a very long account of the Highlanders of Scotland, in which he declares
the MacDonalds to be of 'the ancient stoke,' that is the Pictish. Another
authority is that of the chieftain of the Kintrye MacDonalds, who declared his
race had been settled in Scotland in Pictish times, as he says they dated
back from the time he wrote (which was in 1615), a thousand years, or as he
expresses it, 'tenne hundred years.'

Apparently there was a time in history when the MacDonalds didn't relish a
Clan Colla descent or Conn 'of the Hundred Battles', but in fact rejected it
in favor of a Pictish origin; not just the chieftains, but the whole clan.



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