# Mag Lena

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Not to be confused with [Magh Line](/source/Magh_Line).

***Mag Lena***, ***Mag Léna***, or ***Mag Léne*** (anglicised **Moylena**[1] or **Moylen**[2]) was the name of a plain or [heath](/source/Heath) in the [Gaelic Irish](/source/Gaelic_Ireland) territory of [Firceall](/source/Firceall), between modern [Tullamore](/source/Tullamore,_County_Offaly) and [Durrow](/source/Durrow,_County_Offaly) in [County Offaly](/source/County_Offaly).[1] Mag Lena straddled the [Esker Riada](/source/Esker_Riada),[3] was near the border between [Mide](/source/Mide) and [Laigin](/source/Laigin) (Leinster),[4] and is mentioned in [Irish manuscripts](/source/Irish_manuscripts) as the site of several legendary, pseudohistorical, and historical events. The [civil parish](/source/Civil_parish_(Ireland)) of [Kilbride](/source/Kilbride,_Ballycowan) in [Ballycowan](/source/Ballycowan_(barony)) was "Kilbride al[ias] Moylena" in the time of [Charles I](/source/Charles_I_of_England).[1][5] According to [John O'Donovan](/source/John_O'Donovan_(scholar)), the name **Moleany** was still being used in 1837 for the corresponding Catholic parish[1] (formally Kilbride or Tullamore, and united to Durrow, in the [Diocese of Meath](/source/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Meath)[6]). By then the area was agricultural rather than heathland.[7]

## Legendary events

The *[dindsenchas](/source/Dindsenchas)* of Mag Lena appended to *[The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig](/source/The_Tale_of_Mac_Da_Th%C3%B3's_Pig)* says the name means "the plain of Léna", from Mac Da Thó's son Léna, who was buried there.[8] The division of Ireland into [Leath Cuinn and Leath Moga](/source/Leath_Cuinn_and_Leath_Moga) (Conn's Half and Mug's Half) stems from a battle at Mag Lena, in which [Conn Cétchathach](/source/Conn_C%C3%A9tchathach) defeated Éogan Mór [Mug Nuadat](/source/Mug_Nuadat),[3][9][10] The battle is placed at varying dates in the second century AD by the [Book of Ballymote](/source/Book_of_Ballymote), [Book of Lecan](/source/Book_of_Lecan), [Annals of Ulster](/source/Annals_of_Ulster), and [Book of Leinster](/source/Book_of_Leinster).[11] The 13th-century text *The Battle of Magh Lena* was published in 1855 with an English translation and notes by [Eugene O'Curry](/source/Eugene_O'Curry).[12] ([James Macpherson](/source/James_Macpherson)'s *[Ossian](/source/Ossian)* conflates this Moylena with a different place in [Ulster](/source/Ulster), perhaps [Moylinny](/source/Magh_Line) in [County Antrim](/source/County_Antrim),[13][14] which gives its name to the [Moylena Cricket Ground](/source/Moylena_Ground).)

## Historical events

About AD 630, a [synod](/source/Synod) of Irish clerics was held in Mag Lena to resolve the [controversy over the date of Easter](/source/Celtic_Christianity#Easter_calculation). Shortly afterwards the southern clergy accepted the Roman [computus](/source/Computus), while at Mag nAilbe (Moynalvy, [County Meath](/source/County_Meath)) the northern clergy persisted with the [Iona](/source/Iona_Abbey) value.[2] The *Óenach Colmáin*, an important 9th-century *[aonach](/source/Aonach)* dedicated to [Colmán Elo](/source/Colm%C3%A1n_Elo), was probably held at [Lynally](/source/Lynally) at the southern edge of Mag Lena.[15][16] In AD 906, another battle at Mag Lena was the first of two between the forces on the one hand of [Cormac mac Cuilennáin](/source/Cormac_mac_Cuilenn%C3%A1in), the [king of Munster](/source/King_of_Munster), and on the other hand of [Flann Sinna](/source/Flann_Sinna), the [king of Mide](/source/King_of_Mide) and [High King of Ireland](/source/High_King_of_Ireland), and [Cerball mac Muirecáin](/source/Cerball_mac_Muirec%C3%A1in), the [king of Leinster](/source/King_of_Leinster). Cormac won at Mag Lena but was killed two years later [at Belach Mugna](/source/Battle_of_Ballaghmoon). About AD 1020, Maolmuadh [Ó Maolmhuaidh](/source/%C3%93_Maolmhuaidh), king of Firceall, was taken by force from [Durrow Abbey](/source/Durrow_Abbey) by Fogartach [Uí Chernaig](/source/U%C3%AD_Chernaig), and killed in Mag Lena.[2][17] In AD 1090, [Muirchertach Ua Briain](/source/Muirchertach_Ua_Briain) of Munster lost a bloody battle against Domnall Ua [Maél Sechnaill](/source/M%C3%A1el_Sechnaill_mac_Domnaill) of Mide as part of a four-sided contest for the High Kingship.[18][19]

## Sources

- FitzPatrick, Elizabeth (2015). ["Assembly Places and Elite Collective Identities in Medieval Ireland"](https://aran.library.nuigalway.ie/handle/10379/5224). *Journal of the North Atlantic*. **8**: 52–68. [doi:10.3721/037.002.sp805](https://doi.org/10.3721/037.002.sp805). [hdl:10379/5224](https://hdl.handle.net/10379/5224). [JSTOR 26687008](https://www.jstor.org/stable/26687008). [S2CID 145379529](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:145379529)
- O'Donovan, John (2008). [*Offaly*](https://archive.org/details/ordnancesurveyle0000odon/). Ordnance Survey Letters. Dublin: Four Masters Press. ISBN 9781903538111. – via Internet Archive.

## References

1. O'Donovan 2008 p. ix

1. Charles-Edwards, T. M. (30 November 2000). [*Early Christian Ireland*](https://books.google.com/books?id=g6yq2sKLlFkC&pg=PA276). Cambridge University Press. p. 276. ISBN 978-0-521-36395-2.

1. O'Donovan 2008 pp. 30–31

1. O'Donovan 2008 p. 92

1. ["Kilbride/Cill Bhríde"](https://www.logainm.ie/en/2024/). *[logainm.ie](/source/Logainm.ie)*. Retrieved 26 January 2024.

1. O'Donovan 2008 p. 32

1. Chadwick, Nora (1958), "Scela Mum Meic Datho: The Story of Mac Datho's Pig", *Scottish Gaelic Studies*. **8**: 141

1. FitzPatrick (2015) p. 53

1. Hull, Vernam (1933). "Eogan Mór and Conn Cétchathach". *Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie*. **19** (1). [doi:10.1515/zcph.1933.19.1.59](https://doi.org/10.1515/zcph.1933.19.1.59). [S2CID 163708458](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:163708458)

1. Krappe, Alexander Haggerty (November 1928). ["The Valkyrie Episode in the Njals Saga"](https://archive.org/details/sim_mln_1928-11_43_7/page/472/mode). *Modern Language Notes*. **43** (7): 471–474. Johns Hopkins University Press. [doi:10.2307/2914244](https://doi.org/10.2307/2914244). [JSTOR 2914244](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2914244)

1. Curry, Eugene (1855). [*Cath Mhuighe Léana, or, The Battle of Magh Leana; together with Tocmarc Moméra, or The Courtship of Momera*](https://archive.org/details/cathmhuighelana00ocugoog). Dublin: The Celtic Society.

1. O'Donovan 2008 p. 20

1. PlacenamesNI. ["Moylinny, County Antrim"](https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/9b31e0501b744154b4584b1dce1f859b/page/Place-Name-Info/?data_id=dataSource_1-PlaceNames_Gazeteer_No_Global_IDs_3734%3A24664). *[ArcGIS](/source/ArcGIS)*. Retrieved 26 January 2024.

1. FitzPatrick (2015) pp. 53, 61–62

1. Tigernach (October 1896). ["The annals of Tigernach : Fourth Fragment"](https://archive.org/details/annalsoftigernac00stokuoft/annalsoftigernac00stokuoft/page/358) (in Irish, en). *Revue Celtique*. **17** (4): 358. Paris: Librairie Émile Bouillon.

1. O'Donovan 2008 p. 29

1. Moore, Norman. Vol. 41. p. 327.

## Further reading

- Hogan, Edmund & Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (April 2017 [1910]). ["20826: mag léna"](https://www.dias.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/E-Onomasticon_Text.pdf). *Onomasticon Goedelicum*. digital revised and corrected ed. [Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies](/source/Dublin_Institute_for_Advanced_Studies). p. 2173. Retrieved 24 January 2024.

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