54 



" Leath Mogha," is supported by the testimony of Bede, who more 

 than once marks an existing distinction between the Scots of the 

 northern province and the Scots of the southern parts of Ireland, 

 (the " Septentrionales Scottorum provlnciee," and the "Gentes Scot- 

 torum quae in Austrahbus Hibemiae insulae partibus morabantur,")* 

 The Irish tribes having been, as was shewn, even previous to this 

 universally classed under the generic name of Scots. 



The year 2 14 is consecrated in the Irish annals by the birth of 

 Fingal, and the year 240 by the nativity of Ossian, the alleged Homer 

 of the North. About A. D. 254, Tigernach records an expulsion of 

 the inhabitants of Ulster by Cormac,-f- the nephew of Conn of the 

 hundred battles, when the fugitives were obliged to take shelter in the 

 Isle of Man, Soon afterwards, this Cormac, who figures as a king, 

 a legislator, and a philosopher, assembled the Chroniclers or Sean- 

 nachies of Ireland at Tara, and persuaded them to collect and tran- 



• Eccl. Hist. lib. 3. c. 3. 



f The name of Cormac is met with in Irish history long before the birth of Christ. The 

 above illustrious personage, however, seems properly the first in respect to whom the name 

 became diffused through Ireland. Surnames, as patronymics, were not in general use earlier than 

 the 1 1 th century ; it was, however, very prevalent to adopt names that were recommended by piety, 

 valour, or septship. Accordingly, kings, princes, bishops, and abbots, of the name of Cormac, 

 abound in the annals and registries of Ireland. One in particular of the sixth or beginning of 

 the seventh century, is often mentioned by Adamnan, and is supposed to be a disciple of St. 

 Columba. He is stated tp have thrice sailed from Errus, (County Mayo,) in search of a deso- 

 late island adapted for the accommodation of a religious community. In the second of these 

 voyages, he was obliged to take shelter in one of the Orkneys, and after the third ineffec- 

 tual attempt is said to have founded a monastery in the aforesaid district of Errus. In the 

 beginning of the tenth century, flourished Cormac, King of Munster, and Archbishop of 

 Cashel, whose reign is represented by the native historians as one of peace and moderation, 

 until he was persuaded by an ambitious ecclesiastic to invade the territories of the King of 

 Leinster, in which project he perished. In the middle ages Camdeus O'Cormac distinguished 

 himself by a poem on the chief writers of Ireland yet extant. — And in the ninth and succeeding 

 centuries, the O'Cormacs are particularized as a numerous and influential sept. 



