Note 46 — Chapter II · The Kingdom of Scotland—843–900.

An. Ult. 856. Laxdæla Saga and Landnamaboc in Col. de Reb. Alb., p. 65 to 69. The Gallgael must be distinguished from their rivals the Oirir-Gael, or Gael of the coasts (i.e., of Argyle). Mr. Skene (Highlanders, pt. 2, c. 2) considers them to have been identical, on the strength of a passage which, I think, scarcely bears him out. When the fleet of Turlough O’Connor ravaged Tir Conal and Inch Eogan in 1154 (A. F. M.), the clan Eogan sent to hire “Longus Gallgaidhel, Arann, Cinntire, Manann et Cantair Alban” ships of the Gallgael, Arran, Kintyre, Man, and “the coasts of Alban,” i.e. Oirir-Gael. Gallgael must here mean the Islesmen. The Orkneyinga Saga (Antiq. Celt.-Scan., p. 180) calls the Caithness men Gaddgedlar or Gallgael; in short, it was the name of the two races when blended, and in later days there was a continual struggle for superiority between the Oirir-Gael and the Gallgael—represented by the families of Somarled and of the later kings of Man,—in which the former were ultimately successful, uniting at length under one head the dominion of Argyle and the Isles. There is a slight discrepancy in the accounts of Ketil contained in the Sagas. He was leader of the Gallgael when Harfager was an infant, and appears to have succeeded Godfrey MacFergus, whose name betokens a mixed descent, and who died in 853 (A. F. M., 851). The Gallgael possessed the islands before the time of Harfager.