The Ó h-Anluain (anglicised as O'Hanlon) family was an agnatic extended family comprising one of a string of dynasts along the Ulster-Leinster border. Depending on the advantage to the clan, the Chief of the Name—The O'Hanlon—supported either the Earl of Tyrone or authorities within the English Pale. During the 15th century, ties were close with the famed Earls of Kildare. Frequently, members of the clan would fight on both sides during a rebellion. Some would be outlawed; others pardoned; some ending up on the winning side. The heart of "O'Hanlon's Countrie" was centered on south central Ulster, much of it being in what is now the Republic of Ireland. The first O'Hanlon on record is Flaithbheartach Ua h-Anluain, lord of Ui Niallain, whose murder in the year 983 AD is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters. The anglicised version of the name is usually given as Hanlon or O'Hanlon, but there are many variants: Handlon, Handlan, Hanlan, Hanlen, Hanlin, Hanlyn etc. Occasionally some variants of the names Hanly, Hanley and Handly are also derived from Ó h-Anluain, although Hanly is usually the anglicised form of Ó h-Ainle, an ancient Roscommon sept (the oldest on record is Donal O'Hanly, Bishop of Dublin from 1085 to 1096). O'Hanlon's Country The ancestors of the Ó h-Anluain sept originated in the kingdom of Airgialla. By the 5th century A.D. the sept held territory in and around the modern barony of Oneilland, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, on the southwest shore of Lough Neagh. As the O'Neills rose in prominence from Dungannon to the west, the O'Hanlons moved to territory west of Armagh City. For half a millennium, they served as kings of Orior. The chieftain's name was synonymous with the territory which was better known as "O'Hanlon's Country". It comprised about one-third of modern Co. Armagh, predominantly the eastern third, and also included a large tract of Co. Louth, from Faughart to Ravensdale, and then over the Cooley mountains to Omeath near Carlingford. The peak of land acquisition was in 1504; in 1505 the territory beyond the Gap of the North was granted to the Earl of Kildare. Two of the earliest maps of Ulster, Jobson's Ulster maps (c. 1590) and Norden's map of Ireland (1610), both show O'Hanlon's Country. In 1586, when Sir John Perrot created the County of Armagh, O'Hanlon's country accounted for one of the five baronies: Armaghe, Toaghriny, Orier,