The Delbhna Nuadat were lords of a large section of what is now County Roscommon, situated between the Suca and Shannon 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, of whom John Francis Byrne remarks "the fragments of the earliest genealogical scheme apparaently regard as the ultimate ancestor diety of all the Irish."

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.

Reference

• Irish Kings and High Kings, Francis John Byrne, (page 237), Dublin, 1973.

External link

• http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/uimaine.htm