FrazER—On a Great Sepulchral Mound. Oo 
in his volume of poems lately published, has given a translation of the 
old bardic tale of the destruction of the house (Bruidia) of Da Derga 
and the death of King Conary Cor by thesons of Don Dessa and Ing Mel 
Caech. In addition to the numerous historic features of this tale, and 
its strange admixture of legendary belief and of fairy interference, it 
preserves for us this fact, that so far back as towards the end of Irish 
pagan times, and before the first teaching of Christian doctrines, there 
was a leading line of road radiating from Tara, and passing over the 
river Dodder not far from the sea shore; and situated on this line of 
road was the guest house or Bruidin da Derga, where in those primi- 
tive times a battle was fought, and numbers of warriors slain by an 
invading force of Pirates, the banished Irish chieftains having leagued 
with a British leader, Ingcel, to plunder the Irish coast. Sir Samuel 
Ferguson says: ‘‘ In the reign of Henry III. two king’s highways are 
described as leading from Dublin southwards; one near the sea-shore, 
_and the other by Donnybrook. Booterstown is regarded as preserving 
the name of the ‘ bothair,’ or main line of road to which they appear 
to have converged.’ It must be admitted that it becomes a matter of 
great interest to find preserved in an old bardic tale the distinct record 
of a battlefield situated in close proximity, so far as we can judge, to 
the scene of the present remarkable death mound; but I fear all the 
evidence on the subject points to a far later date for its origin than 
the death of King Conary. 
Some speculations were made by persons ignorant of the ascer- 
tained facts, as to this slaughter being caused by the swords and bullets 
of Cromwell’s soldiery, and to the attacks they made on Baggotrath 
Castle; but Baggotrath lay altogether on the opposite, or western, 
side of the Dodder, and quite out of the way, close to the present bar- 
racks of Beggar’s-bush. Besides there was not a trace of pistol or 
gun-shot wound, nor a fragment of a lead bullet got in the entire 
mound. The injuries sustained were all those inflicted by sword or 
spear, not by gunpowder. Still less satisfactory was the idea that the 
mound contained the remains of those Dublin citizens slaughtered by 
the Wicklow tribes upon Black Easter Monday, a.p. 1209, when the 
Tooles and Byrnes fell on them when enjoying their sports at Cullens- 
wood. The scene of this engagement still preserves the name of the 
Bloody Fields, and lies across the western bank of the Dodder; and I 
believe it would be useless to expect ever to find traces of slain bodies 
on this field, for the dead were removed to Dublin, and buried by the 
citizens. 
The most probable explanation appears to be, that it was the result 
of one of those piratical descents or invasions of the Irish coasts made 
by robber Vikings, Danars, or Black Danes, and their ferocious allies 
from the Island of Scotland, which were so common in the ninth and 
tenth centuries. These invasions took place subsequent to, and were 
altogether different from, the Scandinavian settlements in Ireland of 
Lochlanns or Azure Gentiles, who are described in the chronicles of 
the time by their distinctive feature of being a white or fair-haired 
SER. Il., VOL. Il., POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. G 
