Iveagh

Iveagh Uíbh Eachach(Irish)
Location of the former barony of Iveagh, County Down, in present-day Northern Ireland. It was based on the Irish district of Uíbh Eachach.
Country	Ireland
Province	Ulster
County	Down

Iveagh (/ˈaɪveɪ/; from Irish: Uí Echach, meaning "descendants of Echu") is the name of several different historical territorial divisions located in modern-day County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the anglicised name of an ancient Irish district, ruled by the Uí Echach Cobo, as well as the name of a former barony, which was split into Iveagh Lower and Iveagh Upper.

Iveagh derives its name from the Cruithin tribe Uí Echach (modern Irish: Uíbh Eachach), or "descendants of Echu", and referred to an ancient Irish túath (district). It is also known more fully as Uí Echach Cobo (modern Irish: Uíbh Eachach Cobha, meaning Echu of Cobo), and equivalent with Uí Echach Uladh (Echu of Ulster). The Uí Echach were one of the tribes that made up the ancient kingdom of Ulaid in eastern Ulster. They shared the kingship of Ulaid with the Dál Fiatach and their kin the Dál nAraidi. The Uí Echach were the most prominent sept of the Cruthin.

The name Magh Cobha, meaning "plain of Cobo", appears to have been an older name for Iveagh. The name survived as Moycove, the earliest recorded name in the civil parish of Drumballyroney, where it was the name of an Anglo-Norman castle between 1188–1261. The highest point in the parish is the hills of Knock Iveagh (Cnoc Uí Echach), which may have been the centre of Uí Echach power.

Another form of the name appears to have been Cuib, with the title of "king" of Cuib/Cobo making its first appearance in the Annals of Tigernach under the year 685AD, and in the Annals of Ulster under 735AD. The last mention is in the Annals of Ulster under the year 882AD, after which the term is replaced with chief/lord of Uí Echach.

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