154 Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities ofTara Hill. 



OlLam pooLa ono v. mic laif .1. Caip- OUamh Fodhla had five sons, namely, Cairbre, 



bpe, pinriachca, Slanoll, ocup ^^^e Oil- Finnachta, SlanoU, and Gede OUgothach ; and 

 jorac; ocup6aBpai6, Dia carpigpaiD UloD Labhraidh, from whom are the Kings of Ulster, 

 .1. Clann f.aBpaoa. namely, the Clann Labhradha. 



Book ofLecan, fol. 138, h, 2. 



Again : Ollamh Fodhla, according to the corrected chronology of O' Fla- 

 herty, would have flourished about 500 years before Christ, while according to 

 the Pictish list of kings, Gede could not have reigned earlier than the first cen- 

 tury ; and yet all the Irish authorities acknowledge not only that the Pictish list 

 of kings is correct, but also that the arrival of the Picts was cotemporaneous with 

 that of the Scots, and that their wives were Scots. But, as already remarked, this 

 is not the place to follow up an inquiry of such magnitude and importance ; and 

 it has only been touched on here, for the purpose of showing how necessary is a 

 thorough investigation of all the MS. authorities still existing in Ireland to the 

 final settlement of the ancient history of the British Isles. The Bardic etymo- 

 logy of the name Tea-mur may, at all events, be very well rejected as legend- 

 ary ; nor is it necessary to adopt the mere conjecture of Cormac and other 

 ancient writers respecting its Greek derivation, as a more probable origin of the 

 name appears to be found in the Irish words, teach, a house, and mur, a wall — 

 Teach-mur, house of the walls, or enclosures, for defence ; a name particularly 

 applicable to the place. As it is obvious, then, that Tea-mur and Rath na 

 Riogh are but different and equally appropriate names of the same fortified 

 regal habitation, there can be no rational doubt of the priority of origin to be 

 assigned to this work above all the others circumjacent to it. But, though its 

 great antiquity is thus established, it would be a useless labour to endeavour to 

 assign a period to the foundation of a work erected so long anterior to the dawn 

 of chronological history. That it was considered by the Irish as of the most 

 remote age is clear from their historical tradition, which assigns its first erection 

 to the Fir-Bolg and the Tuatha De Danann colonies, the predecessors of the 

 Milesians, or Scots, and by the latter of whom it was called Cathair Crojinn, 

 a name explained by the bards, as signifying the city of Crofinn, a Tuatha De 

 Danann queen, but the most obvious interpretation of which appears to be — the 

 circular stone fortification of the fair house or enclosure. It may, indeed, be ob- 

 jected to the truth of this historical tradition, and to the interpretation here given 

 of the name, that no remains of a Cathair, — a term never applied by the Irish to 



