Aoife MacMurrough ¹

   Other names for Aoife were Aoife of Leinster, Aoife ni Diarmait and Eva MacMurrough.

  Research Notes:

From Wikipedia - Eva MacMurrough :

Aoife MacMurrough (1145 - 1188, Irish : Aoife Ní Diarmait), also known as Aoife of Leinster, was the daughter of Dermot MacMurrough (Irish : Diarmait MacMurchada), King of Leinster , and his wife Mor O'Toole (c.1114-1191).[1] On 29 August 1170, following the Norman invasion of Ireland that her father had requested, she married Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , better known as Strongbow, the leader of the Norman invasion force, in Christchurch Cathedral, Waterford . She had been promised to Strongbow by her father who had visited England to ask for an invasion army. He was not allowed to give his daughter away, as under Early Irish Law Aoife had the choice of whom she married, but she had to agree to an arranged marriage .

Under Anglo-Norman law, this gave Strongbow succession rights to the Kingdom of Leinster . Under Irish Brehon law , the marriage gave her a life interest only, after which any land would normally revert to male cousins; but Brehon law also recognised a transfer of "swordland" following a conquest. Aoife conducted battles on behalf of her husband and is sometimes known as Red Eva (Irish : Aoife Rua). She had two sons with her husband Richard de Clare the first son she named after her late father, Dermott MacMurrough, King of Leinster .

A life-size statue of her sits at Carrickfergus Castle , with a plaque describing her as "thinking of home."

  Birth Notes:

FamilySearch has b. abt 1141.

  Death Notes:

FamilySearch has d. 1177

Aoife married Richard "Strongbow" de Clare 2nd Earl of Pembroke on 29 Aug 1170 in Christchurch Cathedral, Waterford. (Richard "Strongbow" de Clare 2nd Earl of Pembroke was born in 1130 in Tonbridge, Kent, England and died on 20 Apr 1176 in Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.)