Westropp — The Earthworks, Sfc, of S. E. Co. Limerick. 131 



Mish, on the hills of Luachair and Slievereagh, and even on low ridges like 

 Knockainey and Knock firina. The hearers gloried in a physical sonhood 

 from Lugh or Nuada. The tales were probably largely preserved by a notable 

 guild of Druids round Cenn Febrat, or Slievereagh, round which so many of 

 them centre. " Since the Tuatha De seized the soil of Fotla, above the ranks 

 of the noble druids in general is the branch of Cenn Febrat." 1 They were 

 attached to the sacred mounds and tombs of Gush and Ballinvreena, where 

 the chief gods and heroes of Corca Laegde " Ernai " dwelt, or were buried, at 

 Temair Erann. This treasure of legend was common property of the tribes 

 of Dairfhine and Dergthene, and passed to their bards and historians. 

 Whether some of it came from the chief religious centre of the latter tribe, 

 the home of the great god Bodb, on Slievenaman, we cannot distinguish ; but 

 its proto-history begins with MacNiad of the Ernai, Conaire, and Mog Neid, 

 and his son Eogan 2 " Mog Nuadat," in the second century, and ends abruptly 

 with Eanna Airgthech, just before the introduction of Christianity 3 — a very 

 elocpient fact. We, too, are fortunate in having much of it in a form 

 preceding the synchronizing euhemerists of the tenth century and their 

 incorrigible successors. 



Now what do we gain in broadest outline from these tales and poems ? 

 There is no chronology ; after the " servile revolt " so called (which is very 

 possibly a shadow of some then recent Milesian invasion), we see the so-called 

 " serf tribes " covering all western and southern Ireland, and new tribes only 

 gradually spreading their power in Connacht (the seed-bed of the Tara kings), 

 the Boyne valley, and at Tara, farther south in Leinster and in south Tipperary. 

 Ptolemy shows at least one British tribe, the Brigantes, settled at the south- 

 west corner in Wexford.' The Dergthene tribes of Magh (Feimhin) Femen 

 in southern Co. Tipperary stand alone wedged among the " pre-Milesians " in 

 Munster ; the Ulidian tribes and the Picts fill up the north-east angle of the 

 island, from the Boyne northward. 



In south Munster the arrangements on Ptolemy's map agree well enough 

 with the earliest sagas. In the latter the Erann, or Ernai, 5 occupy the south- 



1 " Metrical Dind Senchas" (ed. Gwynn, Todd Lecture Series), x, p. 230. 



• In Gaul " Eugen " is equated with " Eaugen," son of Esus. Cf. " Les Celtes. ' p. oU. 



3 There were Christian settlements on the south coast, at Cape Clear and Ardmore, and 

 at Saighir Cairain, before Sr,. Patrick. The alleged monotheism of Cormac mac Airl is 

 plausible, as he introduced water-mills, a trained army, and a large oblong hall, and bo 

 sympathized with Roman culture. 



4 Were these the Siol Breogain, whose name suggested t" Ptolemy the British tribe 

 name ? 



6 Ptolemy's " Iouernoi," from whom Ireland seems to have been named. Cf. Ernai, 

 Ierne, Iouernoi, Iuverni. As I shall endeavour to show, " Ernai" is a vague term like 

 " Firbolg " or Milesian, lu early literature it seems to include the Corca Laegde, Claim 

 Dedad and the Muscraige, and Corca Baiscinn. 



