178 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



series is very imperfect. The monasteries were burned in 1020, plundered 

 by the Danes in lOSl, and by tlie English, under Sir John Darcy, with a 

 fleet of fifty-six vessels, in 1834. The Clan Teige O'Brien, of Tromra in 

 County Clare, became the ruling lay chiefs in probably the thirteenth 

 century, when their relative Conor na .Siudaine, King of Thomond, is alleged 

 to have " built " (i.e., as usual, " rebuilt " or " repaired ") Dun Conor. The 

 clan built O'Brien's Castle in the cliief ring fort of Inishere, and a Franciscan 

 House at Killcany in 1485. They kept Galway Bay free from pirates, and 

 were in close alliance with " the City of the Tribes " at its hend ; their power 

 cuhninated in 1560, wlien tliey were strong cnougli to invade Desmond ; 

 for, twenty-five years later, the O'Flahertys had driven out the chief and 

 annexetl tlie island. In vain tlie Galway merchants prayed the Government 

 to reinstate Clan Teige ; the Anna<Ia wiis expected, and the Englisli loft the 

 O'Flahertys in possession. The dispossessed O'Briens sustained their claim 

 even after the great ci\'il war of 1641, but never established it. Tlie 

 Elizabethan authorities garrisoned a castle of Arkin at Killcany ; it was 

 i-epaire<l, and a new ganison placed there in 1618, and again, after its 

 surrender to the Cromwcllians, in 1651. It was rebuilt in the following year. 

 As to the Firbolg descent of the inhabitants, the inquisitions only exhibit 

 names from Connemara and Clare, evident immigrants with the O'Briens and 

 0' Flaherty.'". There is al.so a .strong strain of Cromwellian blood, as the 

 gani.siin, left to itself, mergwl into tlie native population. In 1641 the 

 O'Flahertys raided Clarc from Aran, and captured Tromra Castle from the 

 Wanl family, t<> the destruction of their leailer twelve years later. Roderick 

 O'Flalierty wrot* his well-known account of Aran in 16H5, and the ruiii.s 

 were consorve<l l>y the Board r)f I'ublic Works exactly two centuries later. 

 It is very remarkable how absolutely silent all history and records are on tiie 

 subject of the ring-walls. A legend of [alwut the year 1000, an allusion in 

 1085, and a wild theory ami imaginaiy sketch in 1790, sum up the annals of 

 Dun Aengtxsa before the nineteenth centurj". The other forts of Inishmorc are 

 never even mentione<l. They were of no interest to monk or politician, and 

 even the intelligence and wide mind of O'tlaherty only thought of them for 

 a moment, and did not preserve im even the name of a single fort with 

 which this paper is concerne»l. 



As to the divisions, Araumore in the sixteenth century seems to have 

 been dividetl into Trian Muimhneach, Trian Connachtach, and Trian 

 Eoghanachtach.' These doubtless represented the divisions assigned, the first 

 to the representatives of Brecan ami the men of Thomond, tlie secoml to the 



■ Inquiniion P.R.O.I., taken 1.594 at Arkyn. Trcii-MoynAgh, Ticn-Connniight, and Tren- 

 Onoght. The second tu held by Tuam in right of ihc old see of Annacoyne (or Anna<lown), to 



