Westkopp — The Fort of Dun Acngusa in Iniskmorc, Aran. 6 



source of error in collecting names or folk-lore), found what he so greatly 

 desired. The peasantry, who never heard of Irgus (or " Eerish " phonetically), 

 gave the names " Caherdooneerish " and "Doonirias,"' without prompting; 

 indeed I was at the time obsessed by the name on the map, and only driven 

 to better things by the names which Dr. Macnamara and I had collected 

 independently at different j^laces and on different occasions. Another place 

 contemplated by the legends is probably Doon Fort,^ on the ridge at the 

 source of the Daelach, near Kilfenora. This tallies well with the " Dun " 

 made by Ennach, and called "Tech nEnnach," "in the neighbourhood" of 

 Daelach. From the latter the river Dail' (or Deely) is supposed to be named, 

 whence the existing local names of Lissydeela Fort (which may have been 

 the place intended by the legend-makers) and Ballydeely at the great cairn 

 of Cairnconnaughtagh, near Ennistymon. 



(2) Problems of the Legend. 



That the legend has more than a shadow of a true history at the most no 

 critical thinker can assert. The Firbolgs dwelt in only nine raths in Meath, 

 yet they covered with colonies the islands of Clew Bay (lunse Mod), the base 

 of Croagh Patrick (Oigle), the country round Lough Hackett (Cimbe), the 

 east end of Galway Bay, two divisions in Burren, two in Corcomroe, one in 

 eastern Clare for over fifty miles to the north, the west, and the south-west 

 of Aran.* That such a tribe collapsed without a struggle after the death of 

 four of its warriors is fiction indeed, but not even artistic romance. Neither 

 the prose legends nor the poem anywhere state that Aengus built the fort now 

 bearing his name, though the poem mentions the construction of the " Dun " 

 of Ennach. Were we even dealing with history, we could not attribute to a 

 short-lived tribal group the 500 forts of Aran and the alleged settlements in 

 Clare, the 100 near Lough Hackett, and the thirty near Tawin^ ; yet such a 

 belief was complacently held by antiquaries from 1840, till wider views arose 

 at the close of the last century." To us no type of earthen or stone fort can 



' Joiuniil Royiil Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, (referred to as R.S.A.I.), vol. x.xxi., p. 4. 



* Ibid., vol. xxvii., p. 120. 



' The river flowing into the sea between Lehinuh and Liscannor. It should be noted, however, 

 that there was also a river Duhilyegh near Eiiiiis. The "Deely" is called " Tarsel Flu" 

 (? Farset) in the map of IGIO, but " Talegh " is marked beside it. 



* Other legends made Asal son of Dnior establish a settlement round Drumassall or Tory Hill, 

 near Croom, in County Limerick. 



' In Aran 12, over 265 in BiaieTi, 200 in Corcomroe, and over 100 round Lough Hackett 

 (Lough Cimhi), and 30 near 'I'awiu Island. 



" The Firbolgs were better known as makers of earthen forts, like Rathcroghan. Tliis of courss 

 does not tell against tlieir building stone forts on bare crags. Yet the very curious earthen, oval 

 plattoriu, on the biuv summit of Aghaglinny Hill, near Caherdooneerish, 1044 feel above the sja, 



