O'More (Ó Mórdha), Giolla Pádraig (d. 1420), king of Laoighis (Leix), ruled over the O'Mores from about 1398 to about 1420. His rise to the overlordship was unexpected as none of his immediate forebears had held the kingship in the fifty years before his accession; indeed, the O'Mores from the death of Laoiseach O'More (qv) in 1342 were in decline. Moreover, this decline had been accelerated by dynastic struggles between the various O'More factions for hegemony over Laoighis and Slemargy. Giolla Pádraig's grandfather, David son of Laoiseach O'More (fl. 1348), had lost his power struggle in 1348 with his nephew Ruaidhrí O'More (qv) and had been exiled from Laoighis. But despite a dynamic alliance with the MacMurroughs in the late 1350s, the O'More kingdom by 1360 had subdivided into two lordships centred on Slemargy and Laoighis. The O'More decline is clear as the annals often record the deaths of individuals such as Giolla Pádraig's father Fachtna in 1377, failing to make a reference to an O'More overlord from 1358 to 1398. Their slippage is further shown in their defeat in 1381 by Edmund Mortimer (qv), lord of Leix and earl of March. This defeat may have prompted them to renew their old alliance with the MacMurroughs. Clearly, the O'Mores retained a large residue of goodwill to King Art MacMurrough (qv) of Leinster, dating from his own father's career in the 1350s. At this point nothing is known of Giolla Pádraig except that he was the orphaned son of a prominent O'More noble. However, it seems clear that he may have been viewed or earmarked as the eventual successor to Maolsheachlainn O'More of Laoighis (d. 1398), the overlord who reigned over Laoighis from about the 1370s to 1398. An indicator of this view is that Giolla Pádraig married the daughter of Murchadh O'Connor Faly (qv) and Gormflaith MacMurrough (fl. 1396). Significantly, Giolla Pádraig's new wife was also a niece of MacMurrough. It is likely that Giolla Pádraig went with Maolsheachlainn to take part in the MacMurrough devastation of Carlow and Kildare in 1392. The attachment of Maolsheachlainn and Giolla Pádraig to the MacMurrough cause became particularly evident during the campaigns of Richard II (qv) in Ireland during 1394–5. Indeed, after MacMurrough's release from royal custody in November 1394 Maolsheachlainn, along with other Leinster nobles, surrendered themselves as part of the exchange. All this time Giolla Pádraig stayed out of the way of the royal army. His closeness to the MacMurroughs was obvious as he accepted the deal negotiated by the Leinster king with Richard, and his alliance with them was further confirmed when he and Tomás Carrach Kavanagh (d. 1402), brother of MacMurrough, accepted the terms of the agreement at Leighlinbridge or Carlow on 30 March 1395. For Giolla Pádraig, though, his first moment of real prominence came in 1398, when Maolsheachlainn O'More of Laoighis and the son of Muircheartach Buidhe O'More of Slemargy seemingly died of natural causes. Ironically, their deaths strengthened the dynasty, causing the reunification of the O'More lordships under Giolla Pádraig. It is unknown for certain whether he and the O'Mores played a role in MacMurrough's successful defiance of Richard during 1399. But clearly the O'Mores, like other Leinster dynasties, benefited from the subsequent weakening of royal power arising from Richard's defeat. In particular, Giolla Pádraig now focused on the Butler lands and the county of Kildare. Shortly after the death of his wife sometime in 1404, Giolla Pádraig won a major victory over the English at Blackford, as well as killing Richard ‘Hardfoot’ Butler (1405). After these victories, it seems Giolla Pádraig was able to reap the fruits of his successes and concentrate on bedding down his rule over Laoighis and Slemargy. Almost a decade of relative peace followed till the reopening of hostilities with the English in 1414. The O'Mores were routed, with heavy losses, by the forces of the Dublin government at Kilkea, Co. Kildare. This was followed up by the attacks of the lord lieutenant, John Talbot (qv), on the O'Mores, forcing Giolla Pádraig to give him troops for his campaign against the MacMahons of Oirghialla.
These defeats profoundly weakened the O'More lordship. So when Giolla Pádraig died c.1420, the weakness of the lordship was ruthlessly exploited by the justiciar, James Butler (qv), 4th earl of Ormond. By confronting the Leinster Irish dominance of the Barrow valley, Ormond was determined to display his ability to govern. After defeating the weakened MacMurroughs in 1420, he turned his attention to the O'More territories west of the Barrow. In a campaign (7–11 June 1421), Ormond established his suzerainty over them at a time when their succession was unclear. There were two possible candidates as successor of Giolla Pádraig: Fachtna O'More, a possible son of Giolla Pádraig; and another man, Cetach O'More. However, the most well known son of Giolla Pádraig was Uaithne O'More (c.1400–1490), who was in time to become one of the foremost nobles of the O'Mores in this period. His status was also borne out by the marriage of his daughter Dorothea to Thomas FitzGerald (qv), later 7th earl of Kildare. It seems he finally became king of Laoighis in 1467 after the death of his probable elder brother, Domhnall. The greatest danger faced by Uaithne was from his former allies, the FitzGeralds of Kildare. With the earls of Ormond in steady decline, the Butler influence over the Irish of the midlands rapidly slipped, allowing Gerald FitzGerald (qv), 8th earl of Kildare, to move into the vacuum with the help of the Butlers of Polestown. The rise of FitzGerald power in Leinster frightened Uaithne and the O'Connors of Offaly, prompting them in the late 1470s to form a defensive alliance under the leadership of the Leinster king Murchadh Ballach MacMurrough (qv). By 1479 Uaithne and his allies were warring in south-western Kildare against the prominent FitzGerald supporter Sir Roland FitzEustace (qv). Luckily for Uaithne and his midland compatriots, Kildare decided to devote most of the early 1480s to grinding down the Irish of east Leinster, in particular the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles. Even more fortunately for the O'Mores, much of Kildare's attention was diverted away from them by his meddling in English politics. By the late 1480s opposition was mounting to Kildare's government and his alliance with the Butlers of Polestown, leading to a confederation of Kildare's enemies, subsequently known as the ‘Anti-Geraldine League’. It appears the now elderly Uaithne played an important role in the fomentation of opposition to Kildare. In 1487 during the ‘Simnel crisis’ Seaán O'Carroll (qv) wrote to Thomas Butler (qv), 7th earl of Ormond, stating that he could easily encourage the O'More (Uaithne) to make war on Kildare in order to forestall the FitzGerald advance into the midlands. It seems that Uaithne died shortly after this and was succeeded as O'More overlord by his nephew, Conall mac David O'More (d. 1493).