Westropp — Ancient Sanctuaries of Knockainey and Clog her. 59 



Doonakemna, on Barna Hill, have respectively lour (or live), three (or four), 

 and three rings, three always in line. 1 Killulla, Co. Clare, has two conjoined 

 and a third joined to them by a straight earthen mound. The conjoined two 

 rings are more common. They occur at Tara, Uisnech, and several presumed 

 'Oenach sites, Clogher, Monasteranenagh, and Cahermee. 2 A good example is 

 found in Controversy, Co. Tipperary ; three, with a circle and a shield-shaped 

 annexe, are near Quin, Co. Clare. 3 As to the disc barrow, such as 

 Cooloughtragh and Dunainey seem to be, it seems fairly certain that the 

 demolished Treduma Ncsi at Tara consisted of three conjoined mounds, not 

 concentric rings. Near it was an evident disc barrow, a flat ring with a little 

 central mound (cnocan), called " The shield of Ci'i Chulaind." 1 He (as we 

 know) was son of " the goddess Dechtire " (some said by the sun god Lug) , 

 and nephew of the " earth god Conchobar," son of Ness, who was reverenced 

 at other rings, near his " Shield " and " Head and Neck " mounds. 5 The 

 connexion of other rings and mounds with the cultus of the bile trees" lies 

 oatside the present subject, though there was probably a sacred hazel grove 

 at Knockainey. 



Modern Eeverence of 'Aine. 



Condensing from my own notes' and the full and valuable ones of David 

 FitzGerald in 1879, 8 I must give a short account of the folk-lore and 

 observances of Knockainey, leaving others to complete them. 'Aine was a 



1 A similar triple earthwork is shown on the old map (< ). S. Callow 16) near Bagenals- 

 town in Kilcarrig. It only appears as double on new map. 



2 One mound near Cahermee fair green contained a cist ; so did Knockaun Liss, near 

 Mallow racecourse. The fair and race probably each represented an early oenach, as do 

 the fairs of Cush, Aine, and Knocklong. 



3 Proc. B.I. Acad., vol. xxvii, p. 231, p. 379, and Plate xxxii. 



4 Bev. Celt., vol. xv, p. 287. 



6 See Dind. S., Rev. Celt., vol. xv, p. 288. The cairns lay north and south, like the 

 Cush and Aine rings. The king was forbidden to go round Tara deisiol (Bruden Da 

 Derga, ed. Stokes, p. 19). The inauguration ceremonies at Tara were very archaic (Eriu, 

 vol. vi, p. 134). For the " goddess Dechtire and the earth god Conchobar," see Book of 

 Leinster, f. 135 b, Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, vol. iv, p. 143. Cuchulaind was reverenced at 

 Tara and perhaps at Sid Setanta in Muirthemne (Irische Texte, i, p. 215). 



6 For the bile trees, see Ann. Four MM., 982, 1051, 1099, 1111, 1143. The Bile Buada 

 (Atlantis, vol. ii, p. 102). Bile ratha (" King and Hermit," Meyer, 456-7). Also see Imram 

 Bran, "The Voyage of Bran," p. 57; Ancient Laws, vol. iv, p. 143; Tain bo Flidhais 

 (Celtic Review, vol. iv, p. 23), and Dindsenchas (Rev. Celt., vol. xvi, p. 277). 



7 I heard of Aine and the red bull, the meadowsweet, and the Garrett Earla legends 

 at my old home, Attyflin, farther north, about 1870, from the peasantry. 



s Rev. Celt., vol. iv, pp. 185-191. See also vol. xiii, p. 435. Nicholas O'Kearney in 

 R. Soc. Antt. Ir., vol. ii, p. 32, and Introd. to " Fois tighe Chonain," pp. 93 and 169, 

 says Miluachra, Aine's sister, is " The Cailleach Bheara." His theories are unreliable in 

 some cases. 



