Okpen — t)un Gallon and the l Dunum i of Ptolemy \ 45 



From Nia Corb, the eldest son, is traced the descent of Cathair Mor and 

 most of the succeeding kings of Leinster. In my researches — which, however, 

 I must confess, have been far from exhaustive — I have found no passage where 

 Dal Mad Corb is used in a clearly territorial sense, perhaps because Nia 

 Corb's descendants were regarded as so widely spread among the ruling 

 families of Leinster ; but the early kings of North Leinster, who traced their 

 descent through Cathair Mor to Nia Corb, seem to have been mainly associated 

 with Alend (Knockaulin) and Naas and the Curragh of Kildare, where, as I 

 have elsewhere attempted to show, the great provincial festival of the year 

 known as Aenach Carmain was celebrated under the presidency of the kings 

 of North Leinster. 1 We shall probably, then, be not far wrong in regarding 

 this division of the family as primarily associated with the northern part of 

 the present County Kildare, though offshoots afterwards became the ruling 

 families in many other parts of Leinster. The territory known as Dal 

 Cormaic is defined in the Book of Leinster and in the Book of Lecan, 2 and 

 seems to have covered the southern part of the present County Kildare and 

 parts of Queen's County. Probably the ancient burial-place known as Killeen 

 Cormaic still preserves the name. 



Dal Corpri was in Ara Cliach; and though there was a district of this 

 name in Munster with which the Dal Corpri were connected, there can be 

 little doubt that this Ara Cliach of Leinster included the present baronies of 

 Idrone and perhaps that of Forth in County Carlow. Certainly there was a 

 territory called Cliu (genitive Cliach) in this district, and several passages 

 mentioning Ara Cliach, or Arada Cliach, must be referred to this Leinster 

 Cliu. 3 



In the accounts given of Messi Corb, 4 son of Cucorb, I find no definition of 

 the limits of Dal Messi Corb. The name as a territorial term was at an early 

 period superseded by names of a different formation. The grandson of 

 Messi Corb is represented as having seven sons and about thirty grandsons, 

 and at this period " the sept-names in Ui " begin to appear. They are very 

 numerous, but I can locate with certainty only a few. Some, however, clearly 

 occupied the original territory. Chief among these were the Ui Garrchon, 

 whose eponym was Garrchu, great-grandson of Messi Corb. They are found 



■Journ. R.S.A.I., 1906, pp. 11-41, "Aenach Carman, its site :" and, in particular, 

 pp. 18-20. 



2 LL. 312 c (15-25), 313 6(44). The passage from the Book of Lecan is given in 

 Journal R.S.A.I., 1872-3, p. 353. We can at any rate recognize the names Roeiriu 

 (Mullagh-Reelion near Kilkea), Maistiu (Mullaghmast), Sleibte (Sleaty), and Uissen 

 (Killeshhi). 



3 See Onomasticon Goedelicum s. v. Ara Cliach and Cliu. 



1 The name is variously written Mesi-, Messi-, Meisi-, Messin- Mas-, Meas-, and Mos- 

 Corb. 



