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Tirkennedy

*Tír Cheannada*^[1] (Irish)
Tirkennedy Tír Cheannada (Irish)
	Location of Tirkennedy, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	Northern Ireland
County	Fermanagh

Tirkennedy (from Irish Tír Cheannada 'country of the long-head') is a barony in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.^[2] To its west lies Lower Lough Erne and south Upper Lough Erne, and it is bordered by seven other baronies: Clanawley and Magheraboy to the west; Lurg and Omagh East to the north; Clogher to the east; Magherastephana and Knockninny to the south.^[2]

History

Despite its name, Tirkennedy has nothing to do with the modern personal name of Kennedy, which derives from Cennétig (ugly/rough headed). Rather it takes its name from the epithet of Fergus son of Cremthann, the eponymous ancestor of the Ui Chremthainn, the predominant tribe of the western Airgialla.^[1]^[3] Fergus lived in the late fifth century AD. He was known as Cennfhota (long-head). His descendants became known as the Ui Chennfhota, with the kingdom of Tir Cennfhota receiving its first mention in the Annals in 1349.^[4]^[3]

Chieftains of Tirkennedy at the beginning of the Maguire’s reign over Fermanagh in the late 1200s were the Magunshinan, originally Mac Uinsionnain but anglicised to Nugent.^[5] The Devine (Irish: Ó Daimhín) sept were cited as Lords of Tirkennedy,^[3]^[6] and were a leading Fermanagh sept up to and including the fifteenth century, when the O'Neills broke their power to the north and the Maguires to the south.^[6] Under the Maguires, the MacManus sept became hereditary supervisors of the fisheries in Tirkennedy.^[7]

The early Anglicisation of "Tircannada" recorded in the 1609 escheated counties map is claimed as being more accurate than the present form of "Tirkennedy".^[1]