172 



Adam. This poem was written by Laidcenn mac Bareda, 

 who was a Druid, and one of the chief poets to Niall of the 

 Nine Hostages ; and whose house in the east of Bregia was 

 subsequently burned, and his son, with all his household, 

 killed, by Eochaidh, the son of Enna, which event led to the 

 latter being chained to the Hole-stone in Carlow. This ia 

 the only piece of this celebrated bard's works which is known 

 to exist. 



Then " The Destruction of Dinn Bigh," a royal mansion 

 in Carlow, and the murder of Laeghaire, by his nephew, Lo- 

 bhradh Loingseach.* 



Then a curious tract on the murder of the princesses at 

 Tara, by Dunlaing, a Leinster prince, in the time of Cormac 

 mac Art, in revenge for Cormac having levied on him the 

 Boromean tribute. The names of all the princesses and of 

 their fathers are given. The court in which the fearful deed 

 was committed at Tara was ever since called Claenferta-na- 

 ninghean, or the " inclined house of the virgins," because, as 

 it is said of the other Claenferta at Tara, the house inclined 

 to one side as a perpetual memorial of so atrocious and unjust 

 a deed.t No other account is known to exist of the details 

 of this murder of the princesses, nor of its cause. 



Then follows the succession of the monarchs of Erinn. 



Then an ancient poem on Tara. 



Then pedigrees of the Heremonians. 



Then pedigrees of the Hebereans. 



Then ancient poems on the kings of Cashel ; on the kings 

 of Uisneach, or Meath ; on the kings of Dal Araidhe, &c, 

 &c, &c. 



The volume, which is magnificently written, ends with 

 folio 87, making 174 pages; and there can be little doubt 



* See the Tale of Maon, in Reliques of Irish Poetry, by Miss Charlotte 

 Brook. 



t Vide Petrie's Antiquities of Tara, p. 118, for the " Two Claenferts." 



