Colla Menn<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\u201cColla\u201d means strong man, and \u201cColla da Crioch\u201d means \u201cColla of the two countries\u201d. The two countries were Ireland and Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brothers’ uncle Fiacha was High King of Ireland. When the brothers killed him in battle, Colla Uais took the title for four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the trio were defeated by Fiacha\u2019s son, Muireadach, who banished them to Scotland. After some years, Muireadach let them return and command his armies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re wondering why the son was so forgiving towards the men who killed his father, there was a prophecy that stayed his hand. The legend was that if someone killed the brothers, his descendants would not become king. That\u2019s why Muireadach let them live \u2013 but made them work in his service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Muireadach sent the three brothers to conquer territory in Ulster. The story goes that Fergus, the King of Ulster, killed Colla Menn before he himself was killed by Colla Da Crioch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conquered lands became a new kingdom called Airghialla (Oriel) that covered parts of Derry, Tyrone, west Monaghan, and Fermanagh. Colla da Crioch was the first king of Airghialla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The descendants of the Collas established many of the great clans of Ireland. Some lines are more accepted than others! The Ui Maine Kellys are said by some to be descendants of Da Crioch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The O\u2019Kelly surname is the Anglicized form of the Gaelic name O\u2019Ceallaigh. Before the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, several branches of the Kelly clan held power in different regions of Ireland. Like many other Irish clans, they lost much of their power and lands in the 12th century. However, Kelly is one of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}