The 'Clan Muircheartaigh Uí Conchobhair (aka Clan Murtagh O'Connors) were descendants of Irish High-King Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair, via his son, Muircheartach Muimhneach (d.1210). They have been defined by Katherine Simms as:
... the earliest, most aristocratic and best documented example of increasing nomadism in the northern half of Ireland in the late middle ages. ... In spite of the fact that they were a very numerous branch of the O'Conor family, who supplied five kings to the throne of Connacht, they seem to have vanished away in the early fifteenth century, never to be heard of again.
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The family held the lordship of south County Mayo prior to the Norman occupation of Connacht by Richard Mór de Burgh. Thereafter they attempted with short periods of success to contest for the title of the rump-Kingdom of Connacht in the King's Cantreds with their cousins, the descendants of Cathal Crobhdearg Ua Conchobair. From the 1290s their main base of activity was in West Breifne. After the 1360s their standing was greatly reduced and they returned to County Roscommon as supporters of the O'Conor Roe, gradually fading into obscurity.
Tairrdelbach, King of Connacht & Ard Rí na hÉireann, 1088-1156.
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Ruaidrí Muirchertach Muimnech Cathal Crobhdearg, 1153-1224,
c.1115-1198 Tainiste of Connacht Kg. 1202-24.
King of Connacht, d.1210 Ancestor of Ó Conchubhair Ruadh & Ó Conchubhair Donn
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Conor Ruad, d.1245
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Cathal Ruad Maghnus
Kg. Conn. 1280-88; 1293 Kg. Conn 1288-1293
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Conor Ruad Aodh Breifnech Ruaidri
claimant. 1296 Kg. Conn. 1309-10 Kg. Conn. 1315-16
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Aodh Cathal Ruaidri
Kg. Conn. 1342-43 Tainiste Tainiste
d.1350 d.1366 d.1380