On 28/04/2010 11:58 AM, Bernard Morgan wrote:

> I just find it coincidental that the Muintir Tadhgain pedigree has a Blathmac son of Aedh
 >and they seem to have died in the same years as the father and son - 
Blathmac son of Aedh slaine.

The evidence for such a compound coincidence is pretty thin.

Yes, Aed Sláne and Aed Buide died in the same year, 604.

But did Aed Buide have a son called Blathmac? Not according to the earliest 
pedigree; that in Rawl. B 502 (O'Brien p 162). According to it, Blathmac 
was the grandson of the Aed. You have already agreed that the omission of 
Blathmac's father, Oengus, from later pedigrees is more likely to have been 
an error.

Did king Blathmac, son of Aed Sláne die in 604? Yes according the 
Charles-Edwards, but no according to Mac Niocaill's edition of AU. 
According to Mac Niocaill, that Blathmac is a son of Mael Duin.

In any event, was there a king of Tethbae called Blathmac also recorded in 
AU as dying in 675? No. That Blathmac / Blaímac (who is not identified in 
AU as either a king or as the son of Aed) is listed by AU among the 
*ecclesiastics* who died in the plague, and is identified by 
Charles-Edwards as a bishop (Early Christian Ireland, p 260). 
Charles-Edwards sees the title 'ri' in Tig. as an accretion - it does not 
occur in AU and so there is no support for it as having been part of the 
original entry in the 'Chronicle of Ireland'.

Neil