Westropp — Asscmhhj- Place of 'Ocnach Cairhre and Sid Asail. 367 



the place in the line of the later northern limit of north Minister, and 

 was fixed by this battle before historic legend took firm shape. If I be right, 

 this confusion between places of the same name and prohahiy the same 

 " pre-Milesian " tribe in Counties Meath and Limerick aflected the legend 

 of the Clann Umoir, and led Mac Liac (who, perhaps, had been with his 

 patron. King Brian, at Tara and Tailltiu, through Meath) to put in all the 

 places of note he could remember in that kingdom, without regard to fact 

 or probability, bringing down other places, actually named in the older 

 versions, from north Mayo within the horizon of his audience into Co. Clare. 

 This also explains the hesitancy as to " Mog Mac liuadat's " relation to 

 King Conn ^ in the other tale of the cattle plunder. 



We must remember that Eogan was not only " Mog ISTuadat " (devotee), 

 but " Mac Nuadat " (son of the god), as the tribal pedigrees attested. So also 

 we can place the pedigrees of the Corca Laegde from the Dergthone stem in 

 comparison with those of the Ui Fidgeinte, the Cianachta, the Dealbna, the 

 Caeniaige, and the Tradraige as " politic pedigrees " to legitimatize by affilia- 

 tion those free tribes whom the Derg-thene found it easier to conciliate than to 

 subdue. The name Dromassell existed among the peasantry, at Attyflin, in 

 sight of the ridge, till about 1876. In later years it seemed lost, about 1885, in 

 the same place, but is now I'enewed. It is found from at least the tenth 

 century onward in pi-actically unbroken recoi'd.^ Let it suffice to name, in 

 1289, the lawsuit of Juliana, daughter and heiress of Maurice Fit/.Gerald, 

 with Henry Berkeley, when she claimed Drumassell. In 1311 was a later 

 lawsuit, after which the Berkeleys held it 'at most Brian Duff O'Brien 

 claimed a quit-rent off it in 1583) till 1657. Francis Berkeley then sold to 

 George Peacock "Cnoc Droum Assill, with a fishing weir, the castle, and 

 Loughneguirra." In ecclesiastical records too we find the chapel of 

 Drumassy'l, belonging to Cromote (Croom) parish in 1418. The older 

 peasantry at AttyHin — near it — told a story, like that of the Devil's 

 Bit and the Eock of Cashel, where Satan bit a mouthful out of the 

 plain (the hollow forming the basin of the lake), and dropped the mass 

 beside the pool, making the hill of Dromassell. The name " Toiy Hill " 

 originated in the eighteenth century. 



That the place was of old renown is evident, even if we cannot accept the 

 Euhemerist chronologers' dates.' In " B.C. 10o2 " Sirna Saeglach, son of 



■ The intrusion of Conn Cedcathach into the hitor versions of certain tiilos is well 

 shown by Professor MacNcill in Preface, " Duanaire Finn," pp. xxx, xl, and xlii. 



- Leabar na gCeart, p. 92. Plea Rolls (1289), No. 14 of xviii Edw. I and v of Edw. 11. 

 Desmond Roll, 30, P. Rec. Off. Ir., Down Survey, B. 21, 24. Civil Survey, xxx, p. 5. 



' " Anuals of Four Masters." 



