VVeSTUOPP — The Earthworks, ,yr., of S. E. Co. Limerick. 155 



Bodb is nearly forgotten, but, like most local "fairies." clung to his own 



borne, and won some little meed of recollection down to the last century. 



Cairi;i;k Muse— The Muscraige tribe bears all the mark of having been 

 broken up by a series of invasions; " islands" of it persisted through Minister, 

 Muscraighe Liac Thuill, or O'Noonan 1 of the Ui Fidgeinte in south-west 

 Co. Limerick; Muscraige Mitaine, in Oliu among the Mairtene, in the 

 Galtees ; in Muscraighe Treitherne, Muscraige Chuirc, Muscraige Tire, and 

 Muscraige L'reogain, in Tipperary, Muscraige Luachra, still Muskerry, 

 n Cork, and small fragments at Tontinna on Lough Derg, in east 

 Co. Limerick, in Magh Femen, and elsewhere. 2 There was some close bond 

 between it and the Dergthene, especially with the Dal Cais. In legend it 

 was closely connected by descent with the CorcaDuibne in Kerry and the Corca 

 Baiscinn in Co. Clare. When the tribal genealogists attempted to " regularize " 

 the position of non-Milesian tribes (long before the euhemerist movement), 

 they divided the family god, or eponymus, into a triad, the eldest of whom was 

 (Oengus) Cairbre Muse. But so far from the group belonging to the third 

 century, the Tain bo Cualuge mentions " the three Cairbres from Cliu " as 

 warriors of fame- More than two centuries earlier legend made them sons of 

 Conaire, High King of Ireland, successor of Conn of the Hundred Battles, 3 

 " B.C. S2." His legend' was certainly pagan, and outraged all Christian 

 ethics. His epithet Muse was wrenched into Mo Aisijr, " inordinate desire," 

 for the Muscraighe sprang from him and his own daughter, Duben, or Dovin, 

 whence Corca Duibne. The territory covered the modern Corcaguiny and 

 Iveragh to Valencia Island (Dairbre). In the former section we rind several 

 ogmic inscriptions with her name, " Maqi mucoi Dovinnias," one on a noble 

 site, on the entrenched headland of Dunmore, overlooking the Blaskets- It 

 seems very clear that mythology ran mad on this legend. Duben was 

 possibly (as seems implied) the mother and then the daughter of Cairbre ; 

 then, to get out of the vicious circle, she was turned into a son. Cairbre's 

 name was equated with Corbad, parricide, by some local Fluellyn. His name 

 was said to have been Angus, and he and his brother slew their stepfather, 

 MacNiad, 6 in the arms of their mother. They were close allies of her last 



1 " Sauas Chormaic," p. 127. The name " Muskry O'Noonan" is extant in tin.' 

 Elizabethan Surveys. For the race of Conaire nior and the coming of the Muscraighe 

 from Magh Bregh see Erin, vi, p. L38, from Books of Lecan and Ballymobe. Muscraige 

 tri muige is the Aes tri maige in N.E. Co. Limerick. 



- See notes on O'Huidhriu's " Topographical I'ocm " and the Onomasticon Goedelicum. 



3 Loc. tit., p. 351. ' Studied in It. Soc. Antt. Ir., xl, pp. 184-5. 



6 Keating, Hist., ii, sect, xli, p. 278, tells .another story, where Cairbre Muse slays 

 his stepfather Neimidh in his mother Saruit's arms— another proof of the varying nature 

 of these tales. He derives the epithet Mo Aisge from this event. See also Eriu, vi, 

 p. 143. 



