{{Short description|Plain found in Irish legends}} {{distinguish|Magh Line}} {{use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{use Hiberno-English|date=January 2024}} {{coord|53.29|N|7.52|W|display=title|region:IE-OY_dim:10km|notes=<ref name="logainm_kilbride"/>}}
'''{{lang|ga|Mag Lena}}''', '''{{lang|ga|Mag Léna}}''', or '''{{lang|ga|Mag Léne}}''' (anglicised '''Moylena'''<ref name="Donovan_ix">O'Donovan 2008 p. ix</ref> or '''Moylen'''<ref name="Charles-Edwards2000"/>) was the name of a plain or heath in the Gaelic Irish territory of Firceall, between modern Tullamore and Durrow in County Offaly.<ref name="Donovan_ix"/> Mag Lena straddled the Esker Riada,<ref name="Donovan_30_31">O'Donovan 2008 pp. 30–31</ref> was near the border between Mide and Laigin (Leinster),<ref>O'Donovan 2008 p. 92</ref> and is mentioned in Irish manuscripts as the site of several legendary, pseudohistorical, and historical events. The civil parish of Kilbride in Ballycowan was "Kilbride al[ias] Moylena" in the time of Charles I.<ref name="Donovan_ix"/><ref name="logainm_kilbride">{{cite web |url=https://www.logainm.ie/en/2024/ |title=Kilbride/Cill Bhríde |website=logainm.ie |access-date=26 January 2024 }}</ref> According to John O'Donovan, the name '''Moleany''' was still being used in 1837 for the corresponding Catholic parish<ref name="Donovan_ix"/> (formally Kilbride or Tullamore, and united to Durrow, in the Diocese of Meath<ref>{{multiref| {{cite book |title=The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland |date=1846 |volume=2 |publisher=A. Fullarton |page=369 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4iK5_B7W1xIC&pg=PA369 |language=en |chapter=Kilbride–Tullamore}}| {{cite book |last1=Cogan |first1=Anthony |title=The Ecclesiastical History of the Diocese of Meath |date=1867 |volume=2 |publisher=Joseph Dollard |location=Dublin |page=546 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GlBCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA546 |language=en}} }}</ref>). By then the area was agricultural rather than heathland.<ref>O'Donovan 2008 p. 32</ref>
==Legendary events== The {{lang|ga|dindsenchas}} of Mag Lena appended to ''The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig'' says the name means "the plain of Léna", from Mac Da Thó's son Léna, who was buried there.<ref>{{citation|last=Chadwick |first=Nora |author-link=Nora Kershaw Chadwick |title=Scela Mum Meic Datho: The Story of Mac Datho's Pig |journal=Scottish Gaelic Studies |volume=8 |date=1958 |page=141}}</ref> The division of Ireland into Leath Cuinn and Leath Moga (Conn's Half and Mug's Half) stems from a battle at Mag Lena, in which Conn Cétchathach defeated Éogan Mór Mug Nuadat,<ref name="Donovan_30_31"/><ref>FitzPatrick (2015) p. 53</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hull |first1=Vernam |title=Eogan Mór and Conn Cétchathach |journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie |date=1933 |volume=19 |issue=1 |doi=10.1515/zcph.1933.19.1.59|s2cid=163708458 }}</ref> The battle is placed at varying dates in the second century AD by the Book of Ballymote, Book of Lecan, Annals of Ulster, and Book of Leinster.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Krappe |first1=Alexander Haggerty |title=The Valkyrie Episode in the Njals Saga |journal=Modern Language Notes |date=November 1928 |volume=43 |issue=7 |pages=471–474 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_mln_1928-11_43_7/page/472/mode |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |doi=10.2307/2914244 |jstor=2914244 |language=English}}</ref> The 13th-century text ''The Battle of Magh Lena'' was published in 1855 with an English translation and notes by Eugene O'Curry.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Curry |first1=Eugene |author-link=Eugene O'Curry |title=Cath Mhuighe Léana, or, The Battle of Magh Leana; together with Tocmarc Moméra, or The Courtship of Momera |date=1855 |publisher=The Celtic Society |location=Dublin |url=https://archive.org/details/cathmhuighelana00ocugoog |language=English}}</ref> (James Macpherson's ''Ossian'' conflates this Moylena with a different place in Ulster, perhaps Moylinny in County Antrim,<ref>O'Donovan 2008 p. 20</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=PlacenamesNI |title=Moylinny, County Antrim |url=https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/9b31e0501b744154b4584b1dce1f859b/page/Place-Name-Info/?data_id=dataSource_1-PlaceNames_Gazeteer_No_Global_IDs_3734%3A24664 |website=ArcGIS |access-date=26 January 2024}}</ref> which gives its name to the Moylena Cricket Ground.)
==Historical events== About AD 630, a synod of Irish clerics was held in Mag Lena to resolve the controversy over the date of Easter. Shortly afterwards the southern clergy accepted the Roman computus, while at Mag nAilbe (Moynalvy, County Meath) the northern clergy persisted with the Iona value.<ref name="Charles-Edwards2000">{{cite book |last1=Charles-Edwards |first1=T. M. |title=Early Christian Ireland |date=30 November 2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-36395-2 |page=276 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6yq2sKLlFkC&pg=PA276 |language=en}}</ref> The {{lang|ga|Óenach Colmáin}}, an important 9th-century {{lang|ga|aonach}} dedicated to Colmán Elo, was probably held at Lynally at the southern edge of Mag Lena.<ref>FitzPatrick (2015) pp. 53, 61–62</ref><ref>{{multiref| {{cite journal |last1=Orpen |first1=Goddard H. |title=Aenach Carman: Its Site |journal=The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland |date=1906 |volume=36 |issue=1 |page=36 |jstor=25507494 |url=https://archive.org/details/journalofroyalso36roya/page/36 |issn=0035-9106}}| {{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Elva |editor-last1=Edmonds |editor-first1=Fiona Louise |editor-last2=Russell |editor-first2=Paul |title=Tome: Studies in Medieval Celtic History and Law in Honour of Thomas Charles-Edwards |date=2011 |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-1-84383-661-2 |language=en |page=204 fn. 92 |url=https://www.academia.edu/19031899 |via=academia.edu |access-date=26 January 2024 |chapter=Kingship made real? Power and the public world in Longes mac nUislenn}} }}</ref> In AD 906, another battle at Mag Lena was the first of two between the forces on the one hand of Cormac mac Cuilennáin, the king of Munster, and on the other hand of Flann Sinna, the king of Mide and High King of Ireland, and Cerball mac Muirecáin, the king of Leinster. Cormac won at Mag Lena but was killed two years later at Belach Mugna. About AD 1020, Maolmuadh Ó Maolmhuaidh, king of Firceall, was taken by force from Durrow Abbey by Fogartach Uí Chernaig, and killed in Mag Lena.<ref name="Charles-Edwards2000"/><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Tigernach |editor1-last=Stokes |editor1-first=Whitley |journal=Revue Celtique |volume=17 |number=4 |title=The annals of Tigernach : Fourth Fragment |date=October 1896 |publisher=Librairie Émile Bouillon |location=Paris |page=358 |url=https://archive.org/details/annalsoftigernac00stokuoft/annalsoftigernac00stokuoft/page/358 |language=ga, en}}</ref> In AD 1090, Muirchertach Ua Briain of Munster lost a bloody battle against Domnall Ua Maél Sechnaill of Mide as part of a four-sided contest for the High Kingship.<ref>O'Donovan 2008 p. 29</ref><ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle= O'Brien, Murtough |volume= 41 |last= Moore |first= Norman |author-link= Sir Norman Moore, 1st Baronet |page=327 |short= 1}}</ref>
==Sources== * {{cite journal |last1=FitzPatrick |first1=Elizabeth |title=Assembly Places and Elite Collective Identities in Medieval Ireland |journal=Journal of the North Atlantic |date=2015 |volume=8 |pages=52–68 |doi=10.3721/037.002.sp805 |jstor=26687008 |hdl=10379/5224 |s2cid=145379529 |url=https://aran.library.nuigalway.ie/handle/10379/5224 |language=en|hdl-access=free }} * {{cite book |last1=O'Donovan |first1=John |author-link=John O'Donovan (scholar) |editor1-last=Herrity |editor1-first=Michael |title=Offaly |date=2008 |series=Ordnance Survey Letters |publisher=Four Masters Press |location=Dublin |url=https://archive.org/details/ordnancesurveyle0000odon/ |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |language=en |isbn=9781903538111}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |url=https://www.dias.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/E-Onomasticon_Text.pdf |title=Onomasticon Goedelicum |first1=Edmund |last1=Hogan |orig-year=1910 |authorlink1=Edmund Hogan |first2=Donnchadh|last2=Ó Corráin |authorlink2=Donnchadh Ó Corráin |edition=digital revised and corrected |publisher=Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |page=2173 |chapter=20826: mag léna |date=April 2017 |access-date=24 January 2024 }}
Category:Medieval history of Ireland Category:County Offaly Category:Irish mythology