Maille mac Conall
9th century Irish person

Maille mac Conall, member of the Umhaill, ancestor and eponym of the O'Malley family of County Mayo.
Maille was a grandson of Cosgrach mac Flannbhrath, king of Ui Maill (died 812). He had an unnamed brother, from whom the O'Gormghaile family descend. His father's brother, Colman, is given as ancestor of an O'Colman family, while Fergus, a son of Flannabhra mac Cumusgrach (died 773), is given as an ancestor of the family of Fergus and the Muinter Rooney.
Maille himself does not appear in the Irish annals. He appears in a number of genealogical collections, such as Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh's Leabhar na nGenealach. Hubert T. Knox made use of this source when drawing up family trees of the Ui Mail, and gives the O'Malley genealogy in his book, The History of Mayo.
Pedigree
Maille's floruit is uncertain. His descendants began using his name as a surname in the late 11th/early 12th century. The earliest members of the family to use O'Maille/O'Malley as a surname would have been his great-grandson, Dubhdara.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Maille mac Conall” as 9th century Irish person. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 9th century Irish person. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6735804. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Maille mac Conall”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Maille mac Conall primary sources, Maille mac Conall archive and Maille research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Maille mac Conall”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Maille mac Conall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.