1695bc the name magh cobha meaning plain of cobo appears to have been an older name for iveagh the name survived as moycove the earliest recorded name in the civil parish of drumballyroney the highest point in the parish is the hills of knock iveagh cnoc ui echach which may have been the centre of ui echach power
Dinshenchus topographical poems of eireann number 6 probably transcribed in 1160ad by giolla gilla na naomh hua duinn
mag coba plain the the barony of iveagh in county down
famous the plain men ride over where dwelt coba captain in battle coba foremost in forays was a tool wright and a trapper erimon himself with scores of spearmen brought from far brisk bold coba for trapping of beasts twas known and for bird flocks he was a very snare he fashions a pit fall an imprisoning pen to cath himself for he was doomed to die he put his foot in his own engine to try whether he had set it ready in trim he caught his hand and ankle his foot and slender neck so comely coba perished in his fine far famed pitfall
the edinburgh dinndhenchas whitley stokes 62 mag coba mag coba whence is it not hard to say the plain of coba the pitfall maker or coba the pitfall maker himself that is the pitfall maker of eremon son of mil 1699bc he first in erin arranged a pitfall and he put his foot into it to see whether it was …. In his pitfall whereupon his thighbone broke and his two forearms so that he died thereof thence is mag coba and hence the poet said coba the glorious pitfall maker of erins over king eremon tis he that would sever himself from him great headed coba the pitfall maker
hence the name magf coba from the entry of the sons of mil onto the county down landscape
