The Eight Sons of Niall Noígíallach

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Although Niall Noígíallach is attributed with 14 sons in the Book of Ballymote and 16 sons in Dubaltach Mac Fir Bisig's Great Book of Genealogies, according to Geoffrey Keating in his General History of Ireland, only 8 sons had significance due to their progeny.

1. Fíachád¹ (AKA Fiachu)
2. Láegaire
3. Conall Eirr Bríg² (AKA Conall Cremthinnæ)
4. Maine
5. Eógan
6. Conall Gulban Guirt
7. Cairbre
8. Énnae

There are 22 direct subclades of R-ZZ87:

1. R-S588
2. R-DF85
3. R-ZS8379
4. R-FT17642
5. R-A10642
6. R-A223
7. R-FGC4133
8. R-BY35726
9. R-FGC32796
10. R-BY119411
11. R-FT168685
12. R-FT105225
13. R-BY93859
14. R-FTC610
15. R-BY35748
16. R-FT168547
17. R-Y61966
18. R-FT236610
19. R-BY226893
20. R-FTT142
21. R-FT224542
22. R-FTB60193

Despite R-S588 being readily identified with the descendants of Eógan and R-DF85 being readily identified with the descendants of Conall Gulban Guirt, it is unclear as yet how the other 6 sons should be assigned to the remaining 20 direct subclades of R-ZZ87. There must be more missing umbrella clades like R-FTT142 that unified the previous sibling clades of R-BY21184, R-BY2859, and R-FT410057 into a single clade. If not, then there were indeed more than 8 sons. The early Uí Néill Noígíallaig genealogies do not make correlation with Y-DNA clades an easy task; especially with differing counts of sons.

¹Keating gives the name as Fiacaidh which likely derives from Fíacháid which in turn derives from Fíachád = fía + cád; that is, "holy/noble/pure lord". So Fíachu is a diminutive of Fíachád. The same pattern seems to exist with Eochu being Eóchu which is a diminutive of Eóchád; that is, "holy/noble/pure salmon/yew tree".

²The epithet is also given as Err Breg (hinder-part of Brega or chariot-fighter of Brega) in some texts. The word eirr (chariot-fighter) did indeed mutate to err, but breg seems more likely a mutation of/conflation with bríg (power/strength/force/authority/vigour/virtue) rather than a reference to the territory of Brega. So, Eirr Bríg is a chariot-fighter of power/strength/force/authority/vigour/virtue.