Clare Island Survey — Place- Names and Family Names. 3 13 



(t 695), grandson of Aed Slane (f 604). "In respect of this world's goods, 

 this same Finnachta at the first was endowed but poorly : he possessing but 

 wife and house, and, saving one ox and a cow, no stock at all." 1 The narrator is 

 a re-furbisher of old chronicles for the benefit of those who prefer a well-told 

 tale to a dry list of events. Whether his account of Finnachta's early 

 poverty and life as a husbandman be myth or fiction, he makes no wonder of 

 it as a fortune that might fall to the lot of any king's grandson. 



The seeker for an aboriginal race of men in Clare Island is likely to be 

 disappointed. The island is the habitat of a population not less diverse in 

 early distribution than the flora and fauna are at present. Nevertheless, as 

 to the primitive inhabitants, there are some traditions worth noting. The 

 tribe of the Sons of Umor has already been mentioned. The legend says 

 that they were a branch of the Fir Bolg. They were driven out of Ireland 

 into the surrounding islands by the Tuatha De Danann. In a later age they 

 were driven back to the mainland of Ireland by the Picts. They then 

 settled in Meath, but soon, as has been told, fled from oppression to lands 

 west of the Shannon. 



The tract which gives the territorial distribution of the rent-paying 

 peoples (BB 255 b 36) is to all appearance an authentic document stating 

 known facts. It has — 



" Tuath Mace nUmoir in Dal Cais [= East Clare] and in Ui Fiachrach 

 Aidhne [E. and S.E. of Galway Bay] . . . Tuath Chonchobuirni and (Tuath) 

 Mace nUmoir in Ui Briuin [of Mag Seola, barony of Clare, Co. Galway] and 

 around Loch Cime [Loch Hacket, on the Tuam side of Headford, Co. Galway] 

 and in Chiain Fuiche [Cloonfush (?), W. of Tuam] . . . Tuath Mace nUmoir in 

 Umall [the baronies of Burrish-Oole and Murrisk, Co. Mayo, including Clare 

 Island]." 



The poet MacLiag gives the following places of abode of the Sons of 

 Timor : Dun Oengusa in Aran, Loch Cime, Loch Cutra (near Gort, Co. 

 Galway), [Magh] Aghair (between Ennis and Tulla, Co. Clare), Muirbech 

 Mil (supposed to be the muirbheach or sandbanks at Kilmurvy and Portmurvy, 

 Great Island of Aran) " Dal " with an oenacli beside it (probably Tulach na 

 Dala, 2 site of an ancient assembly-place and a modern fair, 4 miles N. of Tuam : 

 Onom. Goed.), Binn Bera (otherwise Cenn Bera, Kinvarra, on Galway Bay), 

 Modlinn (a poetic name for Cuan Modh = Clew Bay), iath Aigli (the district 

 of Aigle, at Cruach Phadraic, otherwise Cruachan Aigli, Mons Egli of L. 

 Arm.), Laiglinn (unidentified), Dun Conchraide in Inis Meadhoin (now called 

 Dun Conchubhair in the middle island, Aran, Galway), Tulach Lathraig 



1 " Silva Gadelica," p. 438. 2 Hence Lally of Tollendall. 



