92 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



I dare not assert completion, but at least I visited every likely site, besides 

 long reaches of unpromising coast, and even if all the forts should not be 

 recorded, at least 1 am sure that no exceptional or great fortress can have 

 escaped so detailed a search. 



Of the early districts along the coast a few must be noted. Chief of all 

 is Corca Laidhe, 1 the O'Driscoll's country ; it extended far westward, beyond 

 our bounds, once past Mizen Head ; but we begin in its political as well as its 

 natural centre. The tribe of the Corca Laidhe 2 was of the same group as 

 the Dartraidhe, Cabraidhe, Corcaoiche, and Cascraigh. They claimed to be 

 of the race of Ith, son of Breogan (compare Ptolemy's " Brigantes," circa 

 250), the first of the Spanish Gaedhil to see Ireland. Their eponymous 

 ancestor was Lughaid Laidhe 3 ; his son Lughaid Maccon had a son Aenghus, 

 " bloody spear," ancestor of the later Ui hEidersceoil or O'Driscolls. This 

 family boasted that they were the first Christian tribe in Ireland, their 

 clansman, Ciaran of Saighir, having been born at Clere (Clear Island, where 

 his cross, well, church, and strand are still shown) ; he preceded the mission 

 of St. Patrick, as did Declan of Ardrnore, Co. Waterford, by fully thirty 

 years. The Corcalaidhe (Corcaluighe) paid tribute to Cashel— " 100 cows 

 frisking and skipping," "sixty brown oxen," and " 100 heavy hogs " ; the prose 

 version says 100 of each. Another tribute poem under their second name of 

 Dairfhine assesses " 300 oxen, 600 milch cows from the sept of Maccon." 4 

 These poems, attributed to the fifth century, possibly date in their present 

 form late in the ninth (or even in the tenth) century. Finn, king of Corco 

 Laighdi, died in 944. 5 In the early maps from the Upsal Portolan, about 

 1450 down, the name " Corcala " frequently appears with Baltimore and 

 Grlenbaron (or Castlehaven). The latter name must have been superseded 

 by Corcala, as, while it appears on Angelino Dulcert's map, 1339 to 1436, 

 the other takes its place in most of the maps from 1450 onwards. The name 

 Korkly Balthamore is found in the decree against Finghin O'Driscoll in 1460. 

 The pedigree of their chiefs is very broken ; the connected part begins with 

 Maccon, who died 1442 ; Finghin (denounced by the government in 1450 6 ), 

 1472 ; Conchobhar died 1509 ; Conchobhar Finn; O'Mathgamhna ; Sir Finghin 



1 The classical work on this district is O'Donovan's edition of the tract in the Book 

 of Ballymote, &c., in " Miscellany " of the Celtic Society, 1849. 



2 Cormac's Glossary, circa 900, gives Dairfine i (e) Corkalaigde, fine Daire Doimthig 

 (ed. "W. Stokes, p. 16). 



3 Lughaidh was king of Ireland a.d. 250. 



* Leabhar na gCeart (ed. O'Donovan), p. 46, p. 43, p. 64. 



5 Annals of Ulster. There is a long list of Corca Laidhe chiefs from 766 to 1058 in 

 the Annals of the Four MaBters. 



* Statute Roll, Henry VI. 



