84 
Moycullen in the county of Galway being the other half, and 
belong to the Rectory of Tuam. They are computed to be about 
12 miles long, and between 2 and 24 miles in main breadth, inter- 
sected by straits, two or three miles broad ; their appearance is ir- 
regular, the Isles being indented by a number of small bays, some 
of which are considered safe harbours, even for vessels of burden. 
SECTION THIRD. 
ANCIENT CIVIL HISTORY. 
These Isles, according to the Irish annals, were successively 
tributary to the Belgian and Damnonian Kings of Connaught long 
before, and for many centuries after, the arrival of the Scottic 
colony from Spain. According to the Book of Conquests, an Irish 
record so called, (Leabhar Gabhala) on the invasion of Ireland 
by the Damnonians, named in our annals Tutha de Danan, and 
after their victory at Muireadh over the Belgians, or Firbolg, a part 
of the latter colonists fled to the Isles of Aran and other isles on 
the western coast; where they remained undisturbed, until the 
period of their expulsion by the Cruithnigh, or Picts of Ireland, 
not long after the provincial division of the entire country. How 
long these Picts were in possession of Aran, does not appear to be 
clearly ascertained. It is certain, however, that they were suc- 
ceeded in that territory by a Damnonian tribe, patronimically called 
Clan-Huamoir, whom we find in possession of it down to the middle 
of the third Christian century. At that time, the Irish Picts, as- 
sisted by their brethren of North Britain, and by the Damnonians, 
were engaged in a formidable rebellion against the Irish Monarch, 
