44 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The name Dal Messi Corb does not often occur as a territorial name, 

 having been, as we shall see, superseded at an early period by other names ; 

 but I think there are grounds for supposing that it included the greater part, 

 if not the whole, of County Wicklow. Cucorb, father of Messi Corb the 

 eponym of the Dal Messi Corb, is represented as a powerful king of Leinster. 1 

 The progeny of his four sons, Xia Corb, Messi Corb, Cormac Lose, and Corpre, 

 are called cetliri primslonnti Lagen, "the four chief family-stocks of Leinster." 2 

 We might infer that the " population groups " called after them were of 

 large size, and that the four names, when used territorially, would cover a 

 considerable extent of territory — in fact, so much of Leinster as was under 

 the sway of Cucorb. There are some indications, however, which suggest 

 that this available territory was not much more than the present counties of 

 Kildare and Wicklow and the greater part of County Carlow. 3 



These " population groups " are marked by the term Bid (meaning a part 

 or division) followed by the genitive of the eponym. They belong to the 

 second order (collective names) in Professor Mac Xeill's careful analysis of 

 Early Irish Population Groups, 4 and they are all of prehistoric origin. Like 

 other group-names, they are often used to denote the territory occupied by 

 the group in question, and this territorial use sometimes survives a shifting of 

 the population. From the traditional genealogies and accounts of Cucorb's four 

 sons 5 we may therefore acquire some further indication as to the territories 

 associated with their names. I do not indeed rely upon the authenticity of 

 the earlier parts of these genealogies, nor even upon the existence of Cucorb 

 and his four sons ; but I think the genealogies were devised to account for 

 observed contemporary groupings of peoples, and probably in this case point 

 10 a fourfold subdivision of the (then) kingdom of Leinster. 6 



' See the ' death-song ' pronounced by Medb Lethderg, Cucorb's widow, over his 

 grave : LL. 44 b (23), and 380 b (33), translated in O'Curry's MSS. Mat., p. 480. Cucorb 

 is supposed to have been buried in the cairn on the top of Mount Leinster : O'Curry, 

 ibid., p. 47S. note 17, and see Journal R. S.A.I, for 1874-5, p. 385, note. I have visited 

 this cairn ; it is not a large one and seems mutilated. 



z LL. 312 a (1), 380 a (39). 



3 I omit Leix and the Fotharta, as Cucorb is said to have granted the former to 

 Laigsech Cendmor son of Conall Cernach, and the latter to Eochu Find Fuathairt, in 

 return for their expelling the Munster men from Leinster. I also omit the present 

 County AVexford, where the Ui Cennselaigh were afterwards supreme, as, except the 

 barony of Forth (if indeed it was included among the Fotharta, see Ann. Clon., p. 56), 

 we hear nothing about it at this time, and it was probably held adversely by the peoples 

 whom Ptolemy places there. 



1 Proc. R.I.A., vol. xxix (C), pp. 59-114. 



J LL. 312 a et seq., and 380 et seq. 



c It may have been in origin a four-fold division of the Galians and kindred peoples. 

 Prof. Mac Seill compares na cethri hAraid (Lecan 451a) and the tetrarchates of the 

 Galatians in Asia Minor : Proc. R.I. A., xxix (C), p. 89. 



