‘From the evidence of the annals of the surviving legal manuscripts it is clear that the MacEgan family was the most active and influential of the post-Norman legal families’, a deir Fergus Kelly in A Guide to Early Irish Law, 1988. Den teaghlach Léannta sin Flann agus bhí scoil ag a mhuintir i mBaile Mhic Aogáin ar bhruach Loch Deirgeirt i dTiobraid Árann thuaidh. Deir Tomás Ó Rathile in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 36 C, 1922 (‘Irish Poets, Historians, and Judges in English Documents 1538–1615’): ‘The Mac Aodhagáin family of brehons had by the sixteenth century carried their profession into many parts of Ireland; indeed they are found almost as widely spread as the Ó Dálaigh family of poets.... “Carbary McEgan of Bally McEgan”, i.e. Ballymacegan, in the extreme north of Co. Tipperary, is mentioned in a State paper of the year 1591 (Cal. S.P. 1588–92, p. 426). This is evidently Cairbre (son of An Cosnamhach, etc.) Mac Aodhagáin, whose name is first appended to a document of arbitration between O’Kennedys drawn up in 1584. His son, Flann Mac Aodhagáin, of Ballymacegan, is best known from the testimonia which he gave the Four Masters on the completion of their works.’ Bhí Cairbre ina shirriam de chuid na Banríona i dTiobraid Árann. Ollamh breithiún ba ea Flann agus mhúintí féineachas, dinnseanchas, filíocht agus stair sa scoil a bhí aige féin agus a dheartháir Baothghalach. Chaith an Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh tamall ann i 1643 (The Celebrated Antiquary.... 1996 le Nollaig Ó Muraíle).

Diarmuid Breathnach

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