Wkstijopp — Early Forts and Shnc Ihits in Tnlshmorr, Aran. 177 



legend (in tlic tenth century, if not earlier) attributed a settlcinonl in Aran 

 to a fugitive tribe of Firliolgs, " tlie souk of Uiuoir," Aenghus at Dun 

 Aengusa in Ai'an, Conchiurn (or Concraidh) in Inismedhon (Inismaau, the 

 Middle Island). Some fancy that Murliech Mil, a third chief, settled at 

 Kiliiinrvey, a few hundred yards fmrn Dun .Vengusa; but the place intended 

 was probably some other seasiuu-e on the coast of Galway or Clare. 

 Conchiurn had become Conchobhair b)' the seventeenth centui'y ; but local 

 legend identified him with (and attributed his great fort to) Conor na 

 Siudaine O'Brien, King ol' Thumonil, who was slain in 12G7. 



The descendants of the niyliiic hero Fergus mac lloigh and the great Queen 

 ilaeve, the Corca ilodruadh, replaced the Clan Umoir in northern Clare, of 

 which Aran was a part. There was an Eoghanacht tribe in Corcomroe, the 

 Eoghanacht Niuuis, and it held the islands at the dawn of history. If the 

 late " Life of St. Endeus " rest on solid records, Corbanus, their chief, deserted 

 the islands on the arrival of St. Enda about -±80.' Enda's monastic 

 settlement lay in the east of Inishmore ; lint there was another ecclesiastic 

 who established himself in the west — Brecan, son of Eochu BaiUdearg, a 

 Dalcassian prince of Thomond (then mainly Limerick and northern Tipperary, 

 with a precarious suzerainty over Clare) : he settled where Temple Brecan 

 and his grave preserve his name. The Dalcassians, after .350, under Lughad 

 Meann and Conall Eachluath, Kings of Thomond, seized Clare from Connaught, 

 probaljly settling the plain from Inchiquin to (Juin, and getting nominal 

 supremacy over the free tribes, the Tradraighe, Corcavaskm, and Corcomroe. 

 One might expect that this attached Aran to Mimster, for Enda asked his 

 brother-in-law, Aenghus, King of Cashel, for the Isles, but the King had never 

 heard of them till tlien. As an appanage of Cashel they remained, though 

 they were released from certain tributes in A.D. 54G. The late " Life of 

 Endeus " does not mention the forts, and is quite devoid of local colour. Aran 

 became a centre of learning and religion ; it w as a resort of students from 

 all parts of Ireland, and from the Continent, as the grave inscribed " septem 

 Eomani " (no less than our written records) testifies.- Of its Irish ahonni, to 

 select only a few, Kieran of Clonmacuois, Fursey, Brendan the Voyager, 

 Colman macDuach, perhaps Benen, disciple of Patrick, Caimin, brother of 

 Kevin of Gleudalough, and Columba, the apostle of the Hebrides, studied in 

 its cells. 



Successors of Emla are rerordod at intervals from 654 to 1400 ; but the 



' Augustin MacGi;iidin"s " Vita Saiicti Endoi," vviitteii aliout l.'iSO, a woik iiniisiially devoid of 

 topograiihical and .irulucoliigical interrst. 



-The Calendar of Oenjus, " Thiicc fifty eiinaelis of lioman pilgrims." " l.iO pilgrims tr.^m 

 ovci- the sea." " Seven monies nf Kgyiit." Thuie was also an inscription of " liran the pilgrim " 

 found at Temple Brecan. 



