192 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Knowth, 1 Newgrange, Dowth, and their compeers. The searchers in the 

 Desian territory got a vast quantity of plunder, and had the pleasure (that 

 Norsemen loved) of glorying in having dared the spirits of the dead to do 

 their worst in defence of their violated tombs. 



What private quarrel brought on the Desi the slur of having slain 

 Flann mac Lonain, " the Virgil of the Gaedhil," we do not know. He was 

 killed by them (or by the Ui Cuirrbuidhe, or the Ui Fothach) in the Desi of 

 Munihan, at Loch Dacaech, or Waterford Harbour. 



Unfortunately no foreign danger could unite the Irish tribes, and, among^ 

 the rest, the Desi not only weakened themselves and the Osraighi by war 

 and a slaughter of the latter, between 877 and 890, but later on got aid 

 from the foreigners, and repeated the outrage, wasting Ossory as far as 

 Gowran in 893. In 940 Murcheartach, son of Niall, with the men of the 

 north and Breagh, fell equally on the oppressor and the oppressed, ravaging 

 the Osraighi and the Desi. The latter submitted in terror, and were promptly 

 punished for their weakness, for Cellachan, King of Cashel, slew 2,000 of 

 them. Some place his raid earlier — the Annals of Clonmacnoise in 934, the 

 Ghronicum Scotorum in 940 ; he had raided them and taken hostages after he 

 had stormed Waterford and expelled the Danes. The two tribes, tortured 

 into friendship, united in desperation and defeated the army of Cashel. 2 This 

 preceded, and perhaps brought about, the famous " circuit of Erin " by 

 Murcheartach, who carried off Ceallachan, " with a chain of iron on his stout 

 leg," in 941. The tribes recovered sufficiently to help Mathgamhain, son of 

 Cenedid, the Dalcassian King of Munster, against Murchadh, son of Finn, 

 King of Leinster, in 966 or 967, and compelled the latter to make a rapid 

 retreat. Ossory was now closely bound up with Munster. 



King Brian " of the cattle tribute," Mathgamhain's brother, avenged the 

 latter's murder by slaying Maelmuadh at the battle of Bealach Lechta in 

 978 ; he defeated the Danes, not for the first time, the next yeai*, and then 

 was ready to deal with the unfortunate Desi. He ravaged their territory up 

 to Port Lairgi, or Waterford Harbour, and banished Domhnal, son of Faelan, 



1 Cnogbha was again opened and plundered by Amlaibh, grandson of Imar, in 935 (Ann. 

 Ult. ). For the great cemetery of Brugh see especially Mr. George Coffey's two monographs 

 (Trans. .R.I. A., vol. xxx, p. 1 (1891), and "Newgrange (Brugh na Boirme)," 1912. As I have 

 pointed out, the name Brugh is traceable to the present day, e.g. Fiant, 254, Hen. VIII, 

 1541, Brows weir, Oldbridge, Newgrange, and Rossynry: Pat. R., 1619, Cal. p. 422, 

 Brows weir and Brows Mill on the Boyne, Knowthe, Rossenry, &c. (See Journal R. Soc. 

 Antt. Ir., vol. xxxvi, p. 82). 



2 " Cathreim Ceallachain Caisil " (ed. A. Bugge), sect. 31 , tells of Aed, son of Domnall, 

 the descendant of Faelan, and twenty men who slew twenty of the Norse, and only five of 

 the victors escaped home. In sect. 39 Cellachan, who had been brought captive to Dublin, 

 is shown the head of this Aed. 



