This was the first year of the reign of Dealbhaeth, son of Ogma,^[83] Oghma Mythical champion of the Tuatha De, originally a deity. The Latin writer Lucian described a Gaulish deity called Ogmios who personified eloquence and whose tongue was tied by mystical chains to the ears of his listeners. This is paralleled by an early reference to the Irish Oghma as 'a man most knowledgeable in speech and in poetry'. In line with this, he is claimed to have been son of a certain Ealadha, whose name meant 'art' or 'poetic composition'. To him was attributed the invention of the ogham script. The precise relation between the words 'Ogmios', 'Oghma' and 'ogham' are unclear, but the most likely explanation is that the appellative Ogmios was borrowed from the Gauls by the Irish Celts, who reconstructed it as Oghma and applied the deity's name to their magical script. Oghma is said to have been the brother of the Daghdha, and he was given sobriquets such as 'Grian-aineach' (i.e. 'sun faced') and 'Grian-éces' (i.e. 'sun-poet'). He is represented as one of the chieftains of the Tuatha Dé. In the time of oppression during the reign of Breas he, with the Daghdha, was forced to do heavy manual labour, his task being to carry loads of firewood. Despite this humiliation, he continued to show his skill at arms, and was the principal champion of the Tuatha Dé as they prepared for the second battle of Moytirra. On the arrival of Lugh at the Tuatha Dé court, Oghma engaged in a contest with him throwing a flagstone over the side of the royal hall. One account states that he was slain in combat with one of the enemy leaders at the height of the battle, but alternately he is said to have survived the battle and to have shared the triumph with Lugh and the Daghdha. The Ogham script is the earliest form of writing in Irish. It is found in inscriptions on standing- stones in many different parts of the country, especially in the south, and also in areas of Irish settlement in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Wales. Its use dates from the 4th or 5th century AD down to the 8th century. Ogham is in reality a borrowing of the Latin alphabet, but instead of the standard symbols the letters are represented by a system of notches and grooves. The early literature refers to rhetorics and charms being written in Ogham on timber, but the surviving evidence consists solely of standing stones with memorial inscriptions to the dead. The form of Irish in these is sometimes quite antique, with the longer Celtic word-endings. Thus, for instance, a name (in genitive form) in one inscription, 'Dalagni maqi Dali', would have been written 'Dalláin maic Daill' by the time that Irish literature began in the 6th-7th century. It is obvious that ogham was in reality an adaptation of the Latin alphabet by Irish poets or learned men before Christianity brought widespread knowledge of Latin letters to Ireland. The Celtic forms of the words may have been deliberate preservation of archaic language - it is likely that they were already obsolete when ogham was first used, surviving only in rhetorical speech of poets. over Ireland

In the tenth year of the reign of Dealbhaeth, he fell by the hand of his own son, Fiacha mac Dealbhaeth.

The first year of the reign of Fiacha, the son of Dealbhaeth.

At the end of the tenth year of the reign of Fiacha, son of Dealbhaeth, over Ireland, he fell by Eogon of Inbher.^[84] O'Flaherty (Ogygia, p. iii. c. 14) calls him Eugenius de Ard-inver, or Invermor; Keating calls the place Ard-Bric; but we are not told where it is situated.

The first year of the three last kings of the Tuatha-De-Dananns, who were in joint sovereignty over Ireland. These were Mac Cuill,^[84] According to an old Irish poem, quoted by Keating in his History of Ireland, the real names of these kings were Eathur, Teathur, and Ceathur; and the first was called Mac Cuill, because he worshipped the Hazel trees; the second, Mac Ceacht, because he worshipped the plough, evidently alluding to his wish to promote agriculture; and the third, Mac Greine, because he worshipped the sun as his god. for some fancy disquisitions upon the history and names of these kings the reader is referred to Vallancey's Vindication of Irish History, p. 406. In Mageoghegan's translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, it is stated that "this people, Tuathy De Danan, ruled Ireland for 197 years; that they were most notable magicians, and would work wonderful thinges by magick and other diabolicale arts, wherin they were exceedingly well skilled, and in these days accompted the chiefest in the world in that profession." From the many monuments ascribed to this colony by tradition, and in ancient Irish historical tales, it is quite evident that they were a real people; and from their having been considered gods and magicians by the gaedhil or Scoti, who subdued them, it may be inferred that they were skilled in arts which the latter did not understand. Among these was Danann, the mother of the gods, from whom Da cic Danainne, a mountain in Kerry, was called; Buanann, the goddess that instructed the heroes in military exercises, the Minerva of the ancient Irish; Badhbh, the Bellona of the ancient Irish; Abhortach, god of music; Ned, the god of war; Nemon, his wife; Manannan, the god of the sea, Dianchet, the god of physic; Brighit, the goddess of poets and smiths, &c. It appears from a very curious and ancient Irish tract, written in the shape of a dialogue between St. Patrick and Caoilte Mac Ronain, that there were very many places in Ireland where the Tuatha-De-Dananns were then supposed to live as sprites or fairies, with corporeal and material forms, but indued with immortality. The inference naturally to be drawn from these stories is, that the Tuatha-De-Dananns lingered in the country for many centuries after their subjugation by the Gaedhil, and that they lived in retired situations, where they practiced abstruse arts, which induced the others to regard them as magicians. So late as the third century, Aine, the daughter of Eogabhal, a lady of this race, was believed to be resident at Cnoc-Aine, in the county of Limerick, where she was ravished by Oilioll Olum, king of Munster. It looks very strange that our genealogists trace the pedigree of no family living for the last thousand years to any of the kings or chieftains of the Tuatha-De-Dananns, while several families of Firbolgic decent are mentioned as in Hy-Many, and other parts of Connaught. See Tribes and customs of Hy-Many, p. 85-90, and O'Flaherty's Ogygia, part iii. c. 11 . The tract above alluded to as in the shape of a dialogue between St. Patrick and Caoilte Mac Ronain, preserves the ancient names of many monuments of both these colonies, as well as of their conquerors, the Gaedhil or Scoti, now lost to tradition, and is therefore, well worthy of publication. There are two imperfect vellum copies of it extant, but from the two a perfect copy could probably be obtained; one in the Bodleian Library, Laud. 610, fol. 123 to 146, and the other in the Book of Lismore, the original of which is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and a facsimile copy in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy. Mac Ceacht, and Mac Greine.

The Fleet of the sons^[86] Míl Fictional ancestor of the Irish people. his full name is given as Míl Easpáine and is an invention of the historians, patterned on the Latin term 'miles Hispaniae' (soldier of Spain). Though it is possible that there was a character called Míl in genuine Celtic mythology, the idea of such a Spanish ancestor developed from the fanciful derivation of the Latin word for Ireland, Hibernia, from Iberia or Hiberia. The account of Míl and his imagined relatives is given in the Lebor Gabála. This text was based on Biblical chronology, and used many details from the early 7th century writings of Isidorus of Seville. A few elements from Classical literature and from native Irish myth were also utilised. In it, the ultimate origin of the Irish people is put down to Scythia. The people of that area, we are told, were descendants of Noah's son Japheth; and the first important person among them was Fénius the Ancient, who was one of those leaders of different nationalities who went to build the tower of Babel. Fénius was a great linguist and, when the languages were separated at Babel, he alone retained knowledge of them all. His grandson was Gaedheal Glas who, we are told, fashioned the Irish language ('Gaedhilg') out of the whole seventy-two tongues then in existence. Gaedheal and his people lived in Egypt, where they were friendly with the captive Israelites. One recension of the text, in fact, states that Moses saved the life of the infant Gaedheal who had been stung by a serpent. From the green ('glas') mark left by the bite, we are told, Gaedheal got his epithet. Moses cured him by touching the affected part with his rod, and then pronounced that the descendants of Gaedheal would forever be safe from serpents and would dwell in a land where no such creatures existed. In the time of Sru, grandson of Gaedheal, these people were persecuted in Egypt, and they left in four ships and returned to Scythia. They clashed with their old relatives, the inhabitants of that place, and, after several generations of turbulence there, they were driven out and became seafarers. They suffered much hardship in the Caspian sea for seven years, but eventually their druid Caicher found a remedy for the music of the mermaids ('murdhuchu') which was bringing lethargy on them. The remedy was to melt wax in their ears, and by virtue of this they sailed far west into the Mediterranean and took Spain by force. Their king at that time, Breoghan, bulit a great tower at Brigantia (i.e. Braganza) to protect their territory; and on one clear winter evening Íth, son of Breoghan, saw Ireland from that tower. Míl is now introduced into the narrative. He is said to have been a son of Breoghan's son Bile, and his proper name was Golamh. When he grew up, he became curious concerning his relatives in Scythia and went there. He was welcomed by the Scythian king, who gave him his daughter Seang as wife and made him an army commander. Míl was so successful that the king grew jealous and plotted to kill him; but Míl acted first, slaying the king and sailing away from that country with his followers in sixty ships. He arrived in Egypt, where he got land from the Pharaoh and was again made an army commander. His first wife having died in Scythia, he remarried - this time the bride was Scota, daughter of the Pharaoh. Remembering that the druid Caicher had prophesied that his people would settle in Ireland, he left Egypt after some time and set sail westwards. He was, however, interrupted on his journey by tidings that enemies were threatening Spain, and so returned to that country, where he gained the victory in several battles. He had by this time no less than thirty-two sons. Twenty-four of these were born of his affairs in Spain before he left for Scythia, two more - Donn and Aireach - were children of Seang, and the other six - Éibhear, Amhairghin Glúngheal, Ír, Colptha, Érannan, and Éireamhóin - were the offspring of Scota. These eight named sons were given importance as leaders of their people into Ireland. All of this marvelous jumble is the result of liberal, and at times contradictory, speculation on the nomenclature applied to Ireland and the Irish people. Along with the Spanish connection of Míl, we have pseudo-learned attempts to explain several other words. 'Féni', upon which was invented the character Fénius, was the designation used for themselves by the dominant Connachta sept (see Conn Céadchathach) in the early mediaeval period. Gaedheal simply signified an Irish person, the word (earlier Goidel, later Gael) being in origin a borrowing from the Welsh word for an Irishman, 'Gwyddel'. Scota was the Latin word for an Irishwoman; it was, in fact, on the basis of a fabricated connection between Scoti ('Irish people') and Scythia that the latter region was associated with the ancestors of the Irish. Éibhear (earlier, Éber) was forged out of Eberus, a Hiberno-Latin form of Hibernus ('an Irishman'); while Ír is a variant of Éire ('Ireland'), as also is the first element in 'Éireamhóin' and Érannan'. Míl himself never reached Ireland. He died in Spain of an unspecified cause, and it was left to his sons to come and take the country. But in the meantime his uncle Íth, who had seen Ireland across the sea, decided to go and investigate with thrice fifty warriors. They disembarked and went to Aileach (near Derry) where the triumvirate of Tuatha Dé Danann kings had convened to divide the treasures of Ireland between them. Íth counseled them on how the division should be made, but they were suspicious of his intentions and had him slain as he returned to his ship. His followers brought the body back to Spain, and his nine brothers joined with the eight sons of Míl on an expedition to take Ireland from the Tuatha Dé. As they approached the country from the south-west, one of Míl's sons, Érannan, went up on the mast of his ship to reconnoitre and he fell and was drowned. Another son, Ír, rowed ahead of his fellows and his oar broke. He fell backwards into the sea and was drowned also. Finally, they landed at Inbhear Scéine (Kenmare Bay in Co Kerry) and Amhairghin was the first of them to set his foot on the soil of Ireland. They defeated a Tuatha Dé force at Sliabh Mis (a mountain south of Tralee), and there they met the lady Banba, who asked them that her name be henceforth on the country. This was granted, and they made similar promises to the lady Fódla at Éibhlinne (Slieve Felim in Co Limerick) and to the lady Ériu (i.e. Éire) at Uisneach (Ushnagh, Co Westmeath). Thus these three goddesses were made by the pseudo-historians to sanction the takeover by the sons of Míl. At Tara the invaders met with the three Tuatha Dé kings. These were Mac Cuill, Mac Céacht, and Mac Gréine, and one recension of the text states that they were the husbands of the three goddesses. In order to trick the sons of Míl, these three kings sought a truce, asking that they be allowed to hold the country for a mere three days more and that the sons of Míl retire nine waves from the shore for that period. Amhairghin, who played the role of negotiator for his brothers, agreed to this. When the conditions were fulfilled, however, the druids of the Tuatha Dé sang spells against them, causing a storm which swept them far out to sea. Amhairghin then spoke a verse which calmed the waters. In a fit of anger, Donn threatened to put all who were in Ireland to the sword, but the wind rose against his ship and drowned him and his brother Aireach off the south-west coast. This meant that only four sons of Míl were left alive. Éireamhóin, who assumed the leadership, decided to sail with thirty ships right-handwise around Ireland, and they landed at the Boyne estuary. Colptha was the first to step ashore - hence, it was claimed, the estuary was known as Inbhear Colptha. They routed the Tuatha Dé at the battle of Tailtiu (Teltown, Co Meath), after which all Ireland was in their possession. They divided it into two parts, with Éirreamhóin ruling in the north and Éibhear in the south. Colptha is not mentioned again, but contention soon broke out between the other three sons of Míl. It was said that the two brothers cast lots concerning their men of art, and that Éireamhóin won the poets for the north, while Éibhear won the harpers for the south. Within a year, the brothers had a dispute concerning border territories and, in a battle between them at Brí Damh (near Geashill, Co Offaly), Éibhear was defeated and slain. Éireamhóin was then unchallenged king of Ireland, and he dug two royal forts - Ráth Oind in Cualu (north Wicklow), and Ráth Bheathaigh (Rathbeagh, in north Kilkenny). He fought several other battles, in one of which (the battle of Bile Teineadh, now Billywood, near Moynalty in Co Meath) his opponent was his brother, the poet Amhairghin Glúngheal, who resided at Inbhear Mór (Arklow). Having reigned for seventeen years, Éireamhóin died at Airgeadros (Silverwood, by the river Nore), and was buried at Ráth Bheathaigh nearby. Milidh^[87] Nennius, a British writer who flourished about the year 850, says that they came to Ireland with a fleet of 120 ciuli. Mageoghegan, in his translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, adds, that the sons of Miletus (Milesius) arrived in Ireland on the 17th of May, 1029 years before the birth of Christ. As authority for this he refers to a work on Irish history, by "Calogh O'More, who was a very worthy gentleman, and a great seacher of antiquity;" but he adds, that "Philip O'Soullevane, in his printed work, dedicated to Philip the Fourth, King of Spain, sayeth that they came in the year before the birth of our Saviour, 1342 , which is from this present time (1627), the number of 2969 years, Laesthenes being then the thirty-third Monarch of the Assyrians." came to Ireland at the end of this year, to take it from the Tuatha-De-Dananns; and they fought the battle of Sliabh Mis with them on the third day after landing. In this battle fell Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, wife of Milidh; and the grave of Scota^[88] This is still pointed out in the valley of Gleann Scoithin, townland of Clahane, parish of Annagh, barony of Troughanacmy, and county of Kerry. - See Ordnance Map of Kerry, sheet 38. is [to be seen] between Sliabh Mis and the sea. Therein also fell Fas, the wife of Un, son of Uige, from whom is [named] Gleann-Faisi.^[89] Keating states that this valley was so called in his own time. It is now called Glenofaush, and is situated in the townland of Knockatee, parish of Ballycashlane, in the same barony. -See Ordnance Map, sheet 40. After this the sons of Milidh fought a battle at Tailtinn,^[90] Now Teltown, in Meath. against the three kings of the Tuatha-De-Dananns, Mac Cuill, Mac Ceacht, and Mac Greine. The battle lasted for a long time, until Mac Ceacht fell by Eiremhon, Mac Cuill by Eimhear, and Mac Greine by Amhergin. Their three queens were also slain; Eire by Suirghe, Fodhla by Edan, and Banba by Caicher. The battle was at length gained against the Tuatha-De-Dananns, and they were slaughtered wherever they were overtaken. There fell from the sons of Milidh, on the other hand, two illustrious chieftains, in following up the rout, [namely] Fuad at Sliabh Fuaid,^[91] i.e. Fuad's Mountain, a mountain near Newtown Hamilton, in the county of Armagh, much celebrated in Irish history. -See note under the year 1607. and Cuailgne at Sliabh Cuailgne.^[92] Now Sliabh Cuailghe, Cooley mountains, situated near Carlingford, in the north of the county of Louth.

This was the year in which Eremhon and Emher assumed the joint sovereignty of Ireland, and divided Ireland into two parts between them. It was in it, moreover, that these acts following were done by Eremhon and Emher, with their chieftains: Rath-Beothaigh,^[93] Now Rathbeagh, a townland on the banks of the River Eoir or Feoir; (the Nore), in a parish of the same name, barony of Galmoy, and county of Kilkenny. - See Ordnance Map of that county, sheets 9 and 10. over the Eoir in Argat-Ros,^[94] i.e. The Silver Wood, was the name of a woody district on the Nore, in the territory of Ui-Duach. See it referred to as a lordship, under the year 851. and Rath-Oinn^[95] Now probably Rathdown. Crich-Cualann is included in the present county of Wicklow. in Crich-Cualann, [were erected] by Eremhon. The causeway of Inbher-mor,^[96] This was the ancient name of the mouth of the Abhainn-mhor, or Ovoca, which discharges itself into the sea at the town of Arklow, in the county of Wicklow. This tochar is still traceable, and gives name to a townland near Arklow. in the territory of Ui Eineachglais-Cualann,^[97] This was the name of a territory comprised in the present barony of Arklow. It derives its name from Breasal Eineachglas, one of the sons of Cathair Mor, king of Ireland in the second century. [was made] by Amergin. The erection of Dun Nair, in Sliabh Modhairn,^[98] Now obsolete. Sliabh Modhairn was the ancient name of a range of heights near Ballybay, in the barony of Cremorne, and county of Monaghan. In Kinfaela's poem on the travels, &c. of the Milesians, it is stated that Cumhdach-Nair was on Sliabh Mis. by Gosten; Dun-Deilginnsi,^[99] i.e. the Dun or Fort of Deilginis, which was the ancient name of Dalkey Island, near Dublin, not Delgany, in the county of Wicklow, as is generally supposed. The latter place, which is not an Island, was called, in Irish, Deirgne-Mochorog. -See O'Clery's Irish Calendar, at 22nd December. in the territory of Cualann, by Sedgha; Dun-Sobhairce, in Murbholg Dal-Riada,^[100] Now Dunseverick, an isolated rock on which are some fragments of the ruins of a castle, near the centre of a small bog, three miles east of the Giants' Causeway, in the county of Antrim. No portion of the original dun, or primitive fort, now remains. -See the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i. p.361 . It should be here remarked that Murbholg of Dal-Riada was the ancient name of the small bay opposite this rock, and that Murlough Bay, in the same county, was also anciently called Murbholg. This fort was not erected during the reign of Eremhon and Emhear, for Sobhairce, after whom it was named, flourished a considerable time after; and in Kinfaela's poem, though Dun-Sobhairce is given among the forts erected by the sons of Milidh and their followers, it adds, iar sealad, i.e. "after some time." by Sobhairce; and Dun Edair^[101] This fort, which was otherwise called Dun-Crimhthainn, was situated on the Hill of Howth, near Dublin. Dr. Petrie states that its site is occupied by the Bailie's Lighthouse. -See Dun-Crimthainn, AD 9. by Suirghe. By Eremhon and his chieftains these were erected. Rath-Uamhain,^[102] i.e. the Rath or Fort of the Cave. This is probably Rathowen, in Wexford. It is called Rath-Eomhain by Keating. -See his History of Ireland, Haliday's edition, p. 302. in Leinster, by Emhear; Rath-Arda-Suird^[103] In Kinfaela's poem the erection of this fort is ascribed to Fulman, and that of Rath-Righbaird is attributed to Edan, which is more correct, as it appears that, in the distribution of territory, the province of Connaught, in which Rath-Righbaird is situated, fell to the lot of Un and Edan. Fulman was seated in Munster, which was Emher's or Heber's particular portion of the island, and not the northern portion, as Giraldus erroneously states. The fort called Rath-arda-Suird was situated on the hill of Rath-tSiuird, about half a mile to the north-west of the old church of Donaghmore, near the city of Limerick. The site of the rath is now occupied by the ruins of a castle. by Etan, son of Uige; Carraig-Fethaighe^[104] As Un was one of the two chieftains seated in Connaught, it may be conjectured that his fort or residence was situated at Rath-Uin, Rahoon, near the town of Galway. -See Chronographical Description of West Connaught, edited by Hardiman, p.56. by Un, son of Uige; Carraig-Blaraighe^[105] Called by Keating Cumdac Cairge Bladraide, the edifice of Carrig-Bloyree. The Editor never met any topographical name in Ireland like Bladhraidhe, except Blyry in the barony of Brawney, and county of Westmeath. -Ordnance Map, sheet 29. by Mantan; Dun-Ardinne^[106] Called Dun-Inn by Keating, who states that it is situated in the west of Ireland. It is now unknown. by Caicher; Rath-Righbaird, in Muiresg,^[107] This fort is mentioned in the Annotations on the Life of St. Patrick, by Tirechan, in the Book of Armagh, in which it is called in Latin Fossa Riabairt. The church of Bishop Bronus, now Killaspugbrone, near the hill of Knocknarea, in the barony of Carbury and county of Sligo, is referred to as built near this fort. by Fulman. By Emher and his chieftains these [were erected]. A dispute arose at the end of this year, between Eremhon and Emhear, about the three celebrated hills, Druim Clasaigh,^[108] According to the Life of St. Greallan, patron saint of Crich-Maine, or Hy-Many, this Druim, or long hill, or ridge, is situated in Hy-Many, between Lough Ree and the River Suck. -See Tribes and customs of Hy-Many, p. 10. in Crich-Maine; Druim-Beathaigh, in Maenmhagh;^[109] This was the ancient name of a remarkable ridge extending across the plain of Maenmagh, near the town of Loughrea, in the county of Galway. The name is obsolete, but the ridge is identifiable. and Druim Finghin, in Munster.^[110] i.e. Fineen's ridge. This name is still in use, and applied to a long ridge of high ground dividing the barony of Decies-within-Drum, from that of Decies-without-Drum, in the county of Waterford. It extends from near Castle-Lyons, in the county of Cork, to Ringoguanach, on the south side of the bay of Dungarvan. In consequence of which a battle was fought between them, on the brink of Bri-Damh,^[111] i.e. the hill of the Oxen. This is referred to in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, published by Colgan, as Mons Bri-damh; but there is no mountain near Geshill, nor any hill higher than 355 feet. In a description of the site of this battle, preserved in the Dinnsenchus (as given in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 193), it is stated that there were many mounds at this place, in which Emhear, Ever, or Heber, and the other chieftains slain in the battle, were interred. The name Tochar-eter-da-mhagh, denotes the togher or causeway between the two plains, and the name is partly preserved in that of the townland of Baile an tocair, Ballintogher, i.e. the Town of the Causeway, in the parish and barony of Geshill, and near the village of the same name. The territory of the two plains, in Irish, Tuat da maig, and anglicised Tethmoy, was the name of a considerable territory in the ancient Offally, comprising the baronies of Warrenstown and Coolestown, in the east of the King's County, as appears from an old map of Leix and Ophaly, preserved in the British Museum. at Tochar-eter-da-mhagh; and this is called the battle of Geisill. The battle was gained upon Emhear, and he fell therein. There fell also three distinguished chieftains of the people of Eremhon in the same battle; Goisten, Setgha, and Suirghe, [were] their names. After this Eremhon assumed the sovereignty.^[112] i.e. became the sole monarch of Ireland.

The first year of the reign of Eremhon over Ireland; and the second year after the arrival of the sons of Milidh, Eremhon divided Ireland. He gave the province of Ulster to Emhear, son of Ir; Munster to the four sons of Emhear Finn;^[113] Generally anglicicised HeberFinn. The inhabitants of the south of Ireland are constantly designated by the appellation of Síol Eimir, or Slioct Eibir, by the Irish poets down to the present century. Giraldus is evidently wrong in stating that Heberus possessed the northern portion of Ireland. the province of Connaught to Un and Eadan; and the province of Leinster to Crimhthann Sciathbhel^[114] He was of the Firbolgic colony. Keating, in his History of Ireland, and the O'Clerys, in their Leabhar-Gabhala, give an account of the arrival of the Cruithnigh or Picts in Ireland, at this time, and of their final settlement in Alba or Scotland, having received from Eremhon, or Heremon, the widows of the Milesian chieftains who had been drowned on the expedition from Spain. -See Keating's History of Ireland; O'Flaherty's Ogygia, part iii, c. 18; O'Halloran, vol. ii. c.4; and the Irish translation of Nennius's Historia Britonum, in which Doctor Todd has inserted the various accounts of the arrival of the Picts in Ireland. It is stated in the Irish accounts, that the Picts, on this occasion, pledged themselves solemnly that, should they become masters of that country they were about to invade, the sovereignty thereof should be ever after vested in the descendants of the female rather than the male line. -See also Bede's Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. l. of the Damnonians. Tea, daughter of Lughaidh, son of Ith, whom Eremhon married in Spain, to the repudiation of Odhbha,^[115] It is stated in the Book of Lecan, and in the Leabhar-Gabhala of the O'Clerys, that Heremon, who was otherwise called Geide Ollgothach, had put away his lawful wife, Odhbha, the mother of his elder children, Muimhne, Luighne, and Laighne, and married Tea, the daughter of Lughaidh mac Itha, from whom Tara was named Tea-mur, i.e. the mound of Tea; that Odhbha followed her children to Ireland, and died of grief from being repudiated by her husband, and was interred at Odhbha, in Meath, where her children raised a mound to her memory. -See note 105. was the Tea who requested of Eremhon a choice hill, as her dowry,^[116] The tinnscra was a reward always given by the husband to the wife, at their marriage, a custom which prevailed among the Jews, and is still observed by the Turks and other eastern nations. in whatever place she should select it, that she might be interred therein, and that her mound and her gravestone might be thereon raised, and where every prince ever to be born of her race should dwell. The guarantees who undertook to execute this for her were Amhergin Gluingeal and Emher Finn. The hill she selected was Druim-Caein,^[117] i.e. the Hill of Caen, a man's name. It was the name of Tara Hill among the Firbolgs. -See Petrie's Antiquities of Tara Hill, p. 108. i.e. Teamhair.^[118] Teamhair earlier Temuir: The centre of the high-kingship in Ireland, it is situated a few miles north-west of Dunshaughlin in Co Meath. The anglicised form 'Tara' is based on the genitive 'Teamhrach'. The word itself meant 'spectacle', and the fine view of the centre of Ireland available from this vantage point must have been the original reason for the importance attached to the place. Archaeology has shown that Tara was an important burial site from the second millennium BC. After their arrival, probably around 500 BC, the Gaelic people adopted it to their own culture, and made it the centre of the cult of a sacred king. Much of the evidence for this was preserved in the myth of Conaire, a Tara king whose reign was described as propitious and hedged about by many magical conditions. The account of Conaire's death can be taken to reflect the manner in which the Laighin (Leinstermen) seized control of Tara in or around the 3rd century AD, and it may have been the Leinster kings who developed the idea of a special goddess of sovereignty called Meadhbh presiding over the site. A special 'feast of Tara' was celebrated - apparently at Samhain (i.e. November). This was anciently known as 'feis Temro'., the word 'feis' having the basic meaning of sleeping with the goddess and the celebration was thus closely connected with the cult of kingship. All of this was highly prestigious to the Leinstermen, and the importance in which they held Tara as the strategic point of the luscious Boyne valley is reflected in their mythic lore concerning Fionn mac Cumhaill. The powerful 5th century magnate Niall Naoighiallach displaced the Leinstermen and made Tara focus of the control wielded over the whole centre and west of Ireland by his Connachta sept. The Descendants of Niall (the Uí Néill) became high-kings of all Ireland, and they put the cult of sacral kingship of Tara to their own advantage. The principle tenet of their propaganda was based on one great figure who came to be regarded as the archetype of Irish kingship. This was Cormac mac Airt, the basic elements of whose myth seem to have been taken over by the Uí Néill from the lore of their Leinster predecessors at the site. By the early Middle Ages, they had developed the myth of Cormac to such a degree that the cultural landscape of Tara was explained by reference to it. Thus a striking neolithic tumulus on the site was re-interpreted as a mound on which Cormac kept his hostages, and the huge surrounding enclosure known as Ráth na Ríogh ('the rampart of the kings') was said to have been constructed by him. At the centre of the Ráth were two other structures which were claimed to have been Cormac's House and his royal assembly-seat. To the north is a long sunken rectangular area, which was interpreted as having been the site of Cormac's great banquet-hall called the Teach Miodhchuarta; and near this was an enclosure which was said to have belonged to his daughter Gráinne. Among the other remains at Tara associated with the reign of the Uí Néill kings are a mound where Niall's son Laoghaire was buried, and a circle of banks and fosses reputed to have been the site of synods held by Adhamhnán and other saints. The hill of Tara is central to most of the great drama in early Irish literature, but it was always regarded as a site of ancient rather than contemporary glory. The Uí Néill dynasty continued to refer to themselves as 'kings of Tara' and the 'feast of Tara' was apparently still celebrated at the inauguration of high-kings down to the 9th century. However, the prestige of the place in mediaeval culture was rather abstract. The actual site was overgrown and reclaimed by nature, and was the subject of speculation by poets and antiquaries. Thus the fiction grew up that Tara had been abandoned due to a curse placed on it by the 6th century saint Ruadhán, and the ultimate alienation from the ancient cult was reached when an 11th-century scholar invented a new interpretation of its name. According to this, a lady called Tea was the wife of the pseudo-historical Gaelic leader Éireamhóin, and had come from Spain with him. She had seen in Spain a rampart around the grave of a lady of that country called Teiphe. On reaching Tara, Tea begged her husband to bestow the hill on her and, when he complied, she built a wall ('mur') around it in imitation of Teiphe's rampart. When she died, she was buried within that enclosure, hence -the writer fancifully argues - the placename Teamhair. Another object of great curiosity at Tara is the upright granite stone called the 'Lia Fáil', which now stands on the mound known as Cormac's House but which formerly stood near the 'Mound of the Hostages'. This was the stone which symbolised kingship, and it screamed out under the foot or chariot-wheel of the true king. Its cultic role was quite ancient and, in their appreciation of this, the mediaeval pseudo-historians claimed that it had been one of the marvelous objects brought to Ireland by the Tuatha Dé Danann. It has remained the object of lively speculation down through the centuries. The 17th-century historian Céitinn believed that it had been sent to Scotland by Muircheartach mac Earca and had been used for the inauguration of Scottish kings at Scone until taken by the English king Edward I to serve as the coronation stone at Westminster. It is from her it was called,^[119] i.e. from her it was called Teamhair. This story is told somewhat better in Mageoghegan's translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, as follows: "But first, before they landed on this land, Tea, the daughter of Louthus, that was wife of Heremon, desired one request of her said husband and kinsmen, which they accordingly granted, which was, that the place she should most like in the kingdom should be, for ever after called by her name; and that the place so called should be ever after the principal seat of her posterity to dwell in; and upon their landing she chose Leytrymm" [Liat-druim], "which is from that time called Taragh, where the king's palace stood for many hundred years after, and which she caused to be called Tea-mur. Mur, in Irish, is a town or palace in English, and being joyned to Tea, maketh it to be the house, palace, or town of Tea." This derivation is, however, evidently legendary, for Teamair was very common in Ireland as a woman's name, and it was applied to more hills than Teamhair, in Meath; as Teamhair Luachra, in Kerry, and Teamhair Bhrogha-Niadh, in Leinster. In Cormac's Glossary it is stated, that the teamair of a house means grianan, i.e. a bower, boudoir, or balcony, and that teamair of the country means a hill commanding a pleasant prospect. That this is evidently the true meaning of the term is further manifest from the use of it in old Irish writings, as in the following passage in an Irish tract describing the siege of Troy, in H.2 , 15, "Do ronaddna treb cain cumdacta 'is dingna na catrac do dalluc 'is o'foirdecsin 'is do diubracad." "Then was erected a fine protecting house, and a look-out tower upon the teamhair and digna of the city, to reconnoitre, view, and discharge [weapons]." and in it was she interred. Odhbha, the mother of Muimhne, Luighne, and Laighne, died, and was interred at Odhbha.^[120] This was the name of a mound on the summit of a hill giving name to a territory in the ancient Meath, which is mentioned in O'Dugan's topographical poem as the lordship of O'h-Aedha, a name now usually anglicised Hughes. -See it mentioned at AD 890 and 1016. The name, which would be anglicised Ovey, is now obsolete. There is another place of this name in Partry-of-the-mountain, on the west side of Lough Mask, in the county of Mayo, generally called Odhbha-Ceara, and anglicised Ballovey. The battle of Cuil Caichir,^[121] i.e. Caicher's corner, or angle, now unknown. in which Caicher was slain by Amergin Gluingeal, [was fought] this year; and his grave was dug in that place, so that from him Cuil Caichir was named.

The second year of the reign of Eremhon over Ireland. Amhergin Gluingeal, son of Milidh, fell in the battle of Biletineadh,^[122] i.e. the ancient Tree of the Fire. This is said to be in Cula-Breagh, and is the place now called Coill a' Bhile, anglicised Billywood, in the parish of Moynalty, barony of Lower Kells, and county of Meath. this year by Eremhon. The eruption of the nine Brosnachs,^[123] There are only two rivers of this name at present. The other seven were only small tributary streams to these. i.e. rivers of Eile; of the nine Righes,^[124] There are only four rivers of this name in Leinster at present; one near Callan, in the county of Kilkenny; the second flowing between the counties of Kildare and Maeth, and paying its tribute to the Liffey, near Lucan; and the third in the county of Wicklow, and uniting with the Liffey near Blessington; and the forth in the north-west of the Queen's county. i.e. rivers of Leinster; and of the three Uinsionns^[125] Ui-Oiliolla, or Tir-Oiliolla, is the barony of Tirerrill, in the county of Sligo; but there is no river now bearing the name of Uinsionn in this barony. of Hy-Oiliolla.

The fifth year of the reign of Eremon. Fulman and Mantan fell by the king in the battle of Breogan, in Feimhin;^[126] Feimhin was the name of a level plain in the south-east of the now county of Tipperary, comprised in the present baronies of Iffa and Offa East; but the name Breoghan is now obsolete. and the eruption of the following lakes [took place] in the same year: Loch Cimbe,^[127] more usually written Loch Cime, now Lough Hackett, in the barony of Clare, and county of Galway. -See O'Flaherty's Ogygia, part iii. c. 17, and part iii. c. 79, where the same lake is called Loch Sealga; but this is a mistake, for Loch Sealga is near Carn-Fraoich, not far from Tulsk, in the county of Roscommon. Loch Buadhaigh,^[128] i.e. the lake of the victorious man. Not identified. Loch Baadh,^[129] Now Lough Baah, near Castle Plunkett, in the county of Roscommon. Charles O'Connor, of Belanagare, resided near this lake before he succeeded to his father's estate. Loch Ren,^[130] This name still exists, and is applied to a small lake near Fenagh, in the plain of Magh Rein, in the county of Leitrim. It is situated on the northern boundary of the townland of Fenaghbeg. Loch Finnmhaighe,^[131] This name is preserved on the Down Survey, as Lough Fenvoy. It is situated in the barony of Carrigallen, and county of Leitrim, and is now called Garadice Lough. -See note under year 1257, and note under 1386. Loch Greine,^[132] i.e. the Lake of Grain (a woman's name), now Lough Graney, in the north of the county of Clare. -See map to Tribes and customs of Hy-Many. Loch Riach,^[133] Now Lough Reagh, near the town of the same name in the county of Galway. Loch Da-Chaech,^[134] This was the ancient name of Waterford harbour between Leinster and Munster. in Leinster, and Loch Laegh,^[135] This is translated "lacus vituli," by Adamnan. The position of this lough is determined by the ancient ecclesiastical Irish writers, who place the church of Cill Ruaidh, now Kilroot, on its brink. It is now called Belfast Lough, close upon the margin of which some remains of this church are still to be seen. in Ulster.