Ulaid - Territories

Territories

The use of the word cuige, earlier cóiced, literally "fifth", to mean "province", implies the existence at some point in prehistory of a pentarchy, whose five members are believed to have been population groups the Ulaid, the Connachta (Connacht) and the Laigin (Leinster), the region Mumu (Munster), and the central kingdom of Mide. At their height, Ulaid territory extended south as far as the River Boyne and as far west as County Leitrim. However, that pentarchy no longer existed by the 5th century, when documentary history in Ireland begins. The Ulaid still held significant territory, primarily in Counties Antrim, Down, and Louth, although the boundaries of their territories were fluid. Their primary ruling dynasty was the Dál Fiatach, based in Downpatrick, County Down. The name Ulaid developed an additional geographical sense, so that the term rí Ulad, "king of the Ulaid", could refer to the king of the Dál Fiatach, or to the over-king of the north-east, many of whom came from dynasties of the Cruithne such as the Dál nAraide and the Uí Echach Cobo (the Dál nAraide even claimed in their altered genealogies to be na fir Ulaid, "the true Ulaid"). The rest of the ancient fifth fell under the control of the Airgíalla and the northern dynasties of the Uí Néill. The Ulaid as a distinct people, as represented by the Dál Fiatach, survived until their conquest in 1177 by the Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy.