Wkstropp — The Earthworks, Sec, of 8. E. Co. Limerick. 133 



to war; after alternate successes he is left, old and feeble, uninjured, living 

 to see the victor's ruin and death. 



Now this story (whatever be its truth) is very remarkable. It 

 evidently preceded the firm supremacy of the Dergthene apparent at 

 the dawn of history. It is impossible to fancy court poets of either 

 them or their rivals celebrating the overthrow and gross errors and 

 follies of their princes, the dotage of Oilioll, or the ruin of Mog Nuaclat 

 and Lugaid mac Con, unless both tribes regarded the unpalatable story as 

 beyond impeachment, " the memory of man going not to the contrary." The 

 subsequent slow advance of the Dergthene and quietude of the Emai in the 

 third century te.lls of exhaustion from war. The late " discovery " of their 

 later sanctuary, Sid Druim (or Cashel),some say by King Core, son of Lugaid, 

 in the fourth century, marks their slow advance. As its name implies, it was 

 " the abode of idolatry and druidry " (like Tara) when the idols fell on their 

 faces at St. Patrick's approach. 1 The great warrior kings, Lugaid Meann 

 and Conall, similarly, are followed by the long obscurity of the Dal Cais 

 during the fifth and sixth centuries, when the Dergthene tribe had split into 

 two, and the lesser tribe, the Dal Cais, was struggling to hold its own against 

 Connacht until a.d. 620. Oilioll's son, Cormac Cass, was mortally wounded 

 in battle at Knocksauna, evidently trying to extend his territory westward. 

 A century later all the east side of the Maigue valley was held, up to Cam 

 Fhearadaig or Carnarry. 2 When Lugaid Meann's conquests were consolidated, 

 we see Dal Cais colonies up central Co. Clare to Inchiquin Lake and the 

 present north border of Co. Clare, a limit never exceeded. The tribes of the 

 Tuath Echtge, the Corca Modruad, theCorca Baiscinn, the Aradha and Uaitbne 

 and the Ui Fidgeinte were allies, or allowed some nominal suzerainty to the 

 tribes of Cass. 3 Of course in the legends there is a great admixture of frankly 

 mythical elements ; still these are in essentials common to all folk stories, and 

 sometimes attach to late historic persons (even to Garret, Earl of Desmond, 

 and Oliver Cromwell) in the same region. Ethnology has advanced too little 



1 " Ancient Laws of Ireland," i, pp. 22-23 ; v, pp. 472-5. " Tripartite Life of St. 

 Patrick," pp. 41, 195. Cashel, founded by Core, see MS. R. I. Acad., 23D 5, p. 99. 



3 Despite the usage of " Cam Feradaig " for Carnarry till after 1530, and its always 

 being defined as on the northern border of older Thoniond, O'Donovan places it on the 

 southern border on the authority of a chaotic poem naming it. Slievc Claire, etc . in no 

 order. It was seized by Tigernmais from Conmael after tin- battle of Oenach .Vtaclia. 

 Feredach, son of Rochorp, was buried in its cairn (Metr. Dind., x, p. 267), of which the 

 base remains (North Munster Archaeol. Soc, i, p. 108, P. J. Lynch, and Proo. K. I. A,, 

 xxvi, p. 88). 



3 The chronology is usually — Oilioll Aulom, A..D. L90-2MO ; Coniiae Cass and Ki.neha 

 Muillethan, mid. third century; Mogh Corb, 334; Lugaid Meann, 350; Conall, :>7S ; 

 probably the first authentic date in their history. 



