page_title: Murchadh Mac Suibhne
section_title: Ancestry
hierarchical_section_title: Murchadh Mac Suibhne / Ancestry
caption_attribution_description: English: Map for the Wikipedia article concerning Murchadh Mac Suibhne.
context_page_description: Murchadh Mac Suibhne was a leading member of Clann Suibhne. He was a grandson of the family's eponymous ancestor Suibhne mac Duinn Shléibhe, and a nephew of the family's mid-thirteenth-century representative, Dubhghall mac Suibhne.
  During the latter's career, the Scottish Crown sought to extend royal authority into Argyll and the Isles. In the course of this westward drive, Clann Suibhne fell prey to the Stewarts, one of Scotland's most powerful and families. Charter evidence dating to the early 1260s reveals that Dubhghall resigned the Clann Suibhne lordship into the hands of Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith. Whether this transfer was the result of a military operation against Clann Suibhne is unknown.
  The fact that some members of Clann Suibhne were unwilling to subject themselves to Stewart domination is evinced by the record of Murchadh supporting the cause of Hákon Hákonarson, King of Norway, who led a retaliatory campaign to reassert Norwegian authority in 1263. Murchadh played a prominent part in this campaign. He was amongst the Islesmen commanded a detachment of Hákon's fleet into Loch Lomond, where they devastated the Lennox district.
context_section_description: Murchadh was a son of Maol Mhuire mac Suibhne. The latter's father was Suibhne mac Duinn Shléibhe, eponymous ancestor of Clann Suibhne.
  According to the sixteenth-century Leabhar Clainne Suibhne, Murchadh bore the epithet Mear ("the mad"). If this source is to be believed, his father bore the epithet an Sparáin ("the purse"), and was married to Bean Mhídhe, daughter of Toirdhealbhach Ó Conchobhair.
  There is reason to suspect that these claims are nevertheless erroneous. The earliest source to outline Clann Suibhne's descent is the fourteenth-century Book of Ballymote, which appears to show that Leabhar Clainne Suibhne has omitted two generations, merging Murchadh and his father with a like-named son and grandson.
  Various Irish annals, such as the fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Annals of Connacht, record that a member of Clann Suibhne named Maol Mhuire was married to Bean Mhídhe, daughter of Toirdhealbhach, son of Ruaidhrí Ó Conchobhair, King of Connacht. The fact that this source specifically identifies Bean Mhídhe as "the wife" of her husband, in an annal entry outlining her death in 1269, suggests that her husband was still alive at the time. This in turn suggests that the annal entry refers to the wife of Murchadh's son; and that the epithets an Sparáin and Mear are those of Murchadh's son and grandson.
caption: Locations relating to the life and times of Murchadh.
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