Eochaid Buide was king of Dál Riata from around 608 until 629. "Buide" refers to the colour yellow, as in the colour of his hair. Dál Riata (also Dalriada or Dalriata) was a Goidelic kingdom on the western seaboard of Scotland and the northern coasts of Ireland, situated in the traditional Scottish and Northern Irish counties of Argyll, Bute and County Antrim. ...

He was a younger son of Áedán mac Gabráin and became his father's chosen heir upon the death of his elder brothers. Adomnán's Life of Saint Columba has Columba foresee that Eochaid, then a child, will succeed his father in preference to his adult brothers Artúr, Eochaid Find and Domangart. Satellite image of northern Britain and Ireland showing the approximate area of Dál Riata (shaded). ... Iona Abbey Saint Adomnán of Iona (627/8-704) was abbot of Iona (679-704), hagiographer, statesman and clerical lawyer; he was the author of the most important Vita of Saint Columba and promulgator of the Law of Innocents. A popular anglicised form of his name is Saint Eunan... Saint Columba (7 December 521 - 9 June 597) is sometimes referred to as Columba of Iona, or, in Old Irish, as Saint Colm Cille or Columcille (meaning Dove of the church). He was the outstanding figure among the Gaelic missionary monks who reintroduced Christianity to Scotland during the Dark Ages. ...

In the last two years of his reign, 627–629, Eochaid was apparently co-ruler with Connad Cerr, who predeceased him. Eochaid was followed by his son Domnall Brecc. Domnall Brecc (Donald the Freckled) (d. ...

Eochaid's other sons named by the Senchus fer n-Alban are Conall Crandomna, Failbe (who died at the Battle of Fid Eoin), Cú-cen-máthair (whose death is reported in the Annals of Ulster for 604), Conall Bec, Connad or Conall Cerr (who may be the same person as Connad Cerr who died at Fid Eoin), Failbe, Domangart and Domnall Donn (not the same person as Domnall Donn unless his obituary is misplaced by 45 years like that of Ferchar mac Connaid) The Senchus Fer n-Alban was an ancient text created at some time during the 10th century and attributed to the 7th century. ... The Annals of Ulster are a chronicle of medieval Ireland. ...

According to the Fled Dúin na nGéd, Eochaid Buide was the grandfather of Congal Cáech. The story has anachronistic features as it has Eochaid alive at the time of the battle of Mag Rath (securely dated to within a year of 637), but it is chronologically feasible that Congal Cáech could have been the son of Eochaid's daughter if the identification of Cú-cen-máthair and the dating of his death is correct. Congal Cáech (also Congal Cláen) was a king of the cruithne of Dál nAraidi, in modern Ulster, from around 626 to 637. ...

References

• Adomnán, Life of St Columba, tr. & ed. Richard Sharpe. Penguin, London, 1995. ISBN 0-14-044462-9
• Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286, volume 1. Reprinted with corrections. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990. ISBN 1-871615-03-8
• Bannerman, John, Studies in the History of Dalriada. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1974. ISBN 0-7011-2040-1

Alan Orr Anderson (1879-1958) was a Scottish historian and compiler. ...

External links

• CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork includes the Annals of Ulster, Tigernach, the Four Masters and Innisfallen, the Chronicon Scotorum, the Lebor Bretnach (which includes the Duan Albanach), Genealogies, and various Saints' Lives. Most are translated into English, or translations are in progress.
  • Fled Dúin na nGéd at CELT