Delbhna Nuadat
Encyclopedia
The Delbhna Nuadat were lords of a large section of what is now County Roscommon
County Roscommon
County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...

, situated between the Suca and Shannon
River Shannon
The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland at . It divides the west of Ireland from the east and south . County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception...

 rivers. From the early historic era they were a subject people of the Ui Maine.

The appalation Nuadat is usually taken as showing their descent from, or former worship of, the Irish God Nuada
Nuada
In Irish mythology, Nuada or Nuadu , known by the epithet Airgetlám , was the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is cognate with the Gaulish and British god Nodens...

, of whom Francis John Byrne
Francis John Byrne
Francis John Byrne is an Irish historian.Born in Shanghai where his father, a Dundalk man, captained a ship on the Yellow River, Byrne was evacuated with his mother to Australia on the outbreak of World War II...

 remarks "the fragments of the earliest genealogical scheme apparaently regard as the ultimate ancestor deity of all the Irish." However, Delbáeth
Delbáeth
In Irish mythology Delbáeth was the son of either Aengus or Ogma of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and Ethniu of the Fomorians. He succeeded his grandfather Eochaid Ollathair, aka the Dagda, as High King of Ireland. He was the father, by Ernmas, of the three eponymous Irish goddesses Ériu, Banba and Fodla...

 was a forename mentioned in Irish mythology
Irish mythology
The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...

.

There are a handful of references to the Delbhna Nuadat in the annals. In 751 they were defeated at the battle of Bealach Cro by Crimthann King of Ui Maine. Finn mac Arbh, Lord of Delbhna was killed "and the Dealbhna were slaughtered about him." This battle appears to have being the cumulation of a war between the Ui Maine and the Delbhna Nuadat for possession of Delbhna.

In 759, Diumasach Lord of Delbhna Nuadat drowned in an incident called "The shipwreck of the Dealbhna Nuadhat on Loch Ribh."

An entry of 1048 states that "A predatory excursion was made by the royal heirs or chieftains of Ui-Maine into Dealbhna, where the royal chieftains were all slain, namely, Ua Maelruanaidh, Ua Flannagain, the Cleireach Ua Taidhg, and Mac Buadhachain, royal heir of Dealbhna Nuadhat." After this the Delbhna Nuadat as a distinct people fade from history.
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